The first thing you need to know about The Magic of Thinking Big is that it was written in 1959. The author, David Joseph Schwartz , was born in 1927 and died in 1987. That’s why this book does not quote countless studies or the latest scientific research. This doesn’t harm its message at all though.

No matter whether your life goals are incredibly big and daunting or fairly small and achievable, chance are you’ve thought “Where do I even begin?” more than once.

The author suggests you start by creating a mindset in which you feel 100% capable of achieving whatever you set out to do .

Why does this work? Because once you start believing in yourself enough, your brain will spark the creativity required to achieve your goal.

These ideas could have been the roots of what would later become positive psychology . One McKinsey study quoted in the book states that what management and societal leaders are looking for most, when working with people, is the drive to move forward .

People are looking for this attitude, because it makes sure you persevere in the face of failure and adversity , instead of running away at the first roadblock.

Now David presents us with several strategies to improve your self-belief and confidence.

The first is to constantly work on your creative thinking skills.  As opposed to just memorizing facts, which will only help you in certain situations, creative thinking will help you solve any kind of problem you will face.

Your brain can assess and adapt to any situation, because it stays flexible.

1. Always be open to new ideas.
2. Learn something new whenever you can.
3. Ask yourself “How can I do a better job today?” every day.

An mportant factor is your attitude , which will be reflected in the way you walk, talk and behave. Attitudes are mirrors of the mind and people always catch on to what’s going on. After all, reading body language has been how we survived for thousands of years.

Two things you can do to improve your attitude include always doing what you think is morally right and always dressing well.  The former is powerful from the inside, because you believing in your work will make sure you take pride in it, the latter is powerful from the outside, because it makes you and others feel important.

No one is born confident , yet everyone can learn it. “Fake it till you make it” is true in this case, because you can control your emotions by behaving the way you want to feel. So sit in the first row, make eye contact with people and walk faster than others.

Just like dressing well it will make you look important on the outside, which in turn will make you feel confident on the inside.

You might have heard the saying “Winners find solutions, losers find excuses.” and it’s true. This is where the book comes full circle, because believing in yourself is what creates the difference between trying to find someone to blame when things go wrong, and looking for a way to try again and be better.

So how do you turn all this into action?

Take a 2-step approach: Plan and execute.

Write down a detailed, step-by-step plan with instructions how you’ll do each step and a rough idea of when you’ll complete it. Then, get to work and study your setbacks.  Don’t waste any energy beating yourself up, just try to learn from what went wrong and take the next step.

The final argument of this book is that the only difference between successful people and normal people lies in their self-belief and confidence, which causes them to persist long enough for them to achieve success.

The Magic of Thinking Big  asserts that creative thinking is the driving force behind success. This is an idea I’ve seen in many books now, but this one rounds up a broad collection of thoughts on the topic really well. Recommended!

The 13-year-old teenager who is about to take a “what work is right for you” test, the 34-year-old friend who just suffered a major setback, and anyone who spends the majority of their time complaining.