Big Picture Thinking Tools
Sally struggled in each of her 16 school years. But because she had good common sense and started her adult life with a winning PLAN, she was able to work around her memory deficits and retire earlier more secure than most. Sally used big picture thinking tools.
You will like her TOOLS listed in the bullets below:
People who are good at finding and applying life-skills will start using the new ones immediately. For those who are new to self-help; feeling the power of any concept will make acquiring others much easier.
Loving all aspects of yourself, as you are, including your deficits and miss-steps, will open up your abilities by taking the pressure off of you. Setting the right pace will make your progress more sustainable and enjoyable.
New thinking can’t overcome bad thought-habits immediately. Allow time for the new concepts to replace them. Revisit these tools until they become part of you.
Approaching your goals is like approaching the horizon. As you get closer, the world expands ahead of you, your options get better and the skills you need to take advantage of them show up.
Have Joy in Your Life
Every 5 years for 50 years, a Harvard study examined the lives of 824 participants, the majority of whom were well off. The researchers concluded that even though one of the participants, had never lived above the poverty level IRIS JOY had done the best job with her life. She was thoughtful, spiritual and caring. She chose the right spouse, learned constantly, stayed fit and was a good friend to everyone. The committee in charge felt that the balance she had crafted with the ingredients of her life had produced the most pleasing result. Harvard Study on Adult Development
BIG PICTURE THINKING TOOLS:
- The balance I craft with my emotions and the ingredients of my life are better predictors of my potential than my intelligence.
- The way to achieve my full lifetime potential is to use my best thinking and all my energy constantly to implement the best Plan for life that I can envision.
- I will choose to be the boss of my thoughts and emotions.
- When I appreciate my deficits they enhance my assets.
- Setting my goals high and accomplishing as much of them as I can will make me more valuable than if I set them low and achieve all of them.
- The earlier in life I know my goals the less energy I will waste on dead ends.
- Success is having close quality relationships with my friends and family.
- When I find the work I love, it will cease to be work. But if it won’t support my family and retirement, I will get a second job and/or learn how to save and invest.
I will:
- Thank God with my life by being the change I want to make in the world.
- Concentrate on knowing the most important thing for me to do next.
- Keep my destination and PLAN for reaching it, current, in writing and where I can see it often.
- Make the stair-steps to my goals manageable, keep them in the right sequence, and set aside time to appreciate my progress as I accomplish each one.
- Concentrate my efforts on the things that will make the most important improvements to my life.
- Have the most to give or fall back on by making everything I do produce as much lasting value as possible.
- Observe my performance and how my actions are affecting others.
- Improve my creativity by choosing to be creative, setting aside pressure-free time to think often and getting more sleep.
- Act as if I can achieve my goals; because that is the quickest way to achieve them.
- Keep my outlook, happiness, and appreciation thermostats set on high.
- Improve my luck by working harder.
- Treat the world as my stage and my talents, deficits, and imperfections as my costume. My role is to be me. Only God knows what He wants from my efforts. I will do my best always even when I am not sure of my part.
