Originally published as ‘Thinking for A Change’ in 2003.
I purchased the book in September 2024 at the book store at Cumberland Mall and focused on reading it February and March of 2025.
The book is largely an effectively arranged collection of quotations and citations of other writers. I think the most value I can gain (and share) is to assemble the points that had the strongest impact on me for possible integration into my other work. That is the purpose of this post.
INTRODUCTION
What luck for rulers that men do not think.
“If you want to become a better thinker, you have to work at it” -JM
“When you hear “This is just off the top of my head”, expect dandruff”. -JM
“Thinking is hard work, that’s why so few do it”. -Albert Einstein
Sharp people sharpen each other -Proverbs
“I can give you a six word formula for success: Think things through, then follow through.” -Eddie Rickenbacher
Have a dedicated space to think good thoughts.
“Great ideas need landing gear as well as wings”. -C.D. Jackson
“People will buy into an idea only after they buy into the leader who communicates it” -JM
“Do I believe it? Do I live it? Do I believe others should live it?” -JM
“No idea will fly if the influencers don’t embrace it”. – JM
“think like a man of action, act like a man of thought”. -Henri-Louis Bergson, Nobel Prize French philosopher, 1927
“good thinking is not just one thing”
CULTIVATE BIG PICTURE THINKING
“You have to think anyway, why not think big” – DT
“Big picture thinkers know that they don’t know a lot of things”
“Many an object it not seen, though it falls within the range of our visual ray, because it does not come within the range of our intellectual ray”. -Henry Davis Thoreau
Try to take the other person’s perspective.
ENGAGE IN FOCUSED THINKING
No one achieves greatness by being a generalist.
“A conclusion is the place where you get tired of thinking”. -Edward DeBono
If you want to achieve great things, you need to have a great dream. -JM
Do first things first – the activities that give you the highest return
The purpose of goals is to focus your attention and give direction, not to identify a final destination
Goals should be:
- Clear enough to be kept in focus
- Close enough to be achieved
- Helpful enough to change lives
HARNESS CREATIVE THINKING
“imagination is more important than knowledge” = Albert Einstein
Creativity is being able to see what everybody else has already seen and think what no one else has thought so you can do what no one else has done.
Creative thinking draws people to you and your ideas.
Negative environments kill thousands of great ideas every minute.
Most people automatically stay within the lines, even if those lines have been arbitrarily drawn and are terribly out of date.
Spend time with other creative people.
The most effective way to help yourself is to get outside of the box and expose yourself to new paradigms.
Explore other cultures, countries and traditions.
Read broadly on new subjects.
EMPLOY REALISTIC THINKING
Actions always have consequences.
If you plan for the worst case scenario, you can minimize the downside risk.
In business, only a few decisions are important.
People who rely on hope for their success rarely make change a high priority.
Realistic thinking gives you credibility.
“The value of a good idea is in using it” – Thomas Edison
If creativity is what you would do if you were unafraid of the possibility of failure, then reality is dealing with failure if it does happen.
Idealism increases in direct proportion to one’s distance from the problem.
“I never give ’em hell. I just tell them the truth and they think it is hell” – Harry S. Truman
Ruckert’s Law: Nothing is so small that it can’t be blown out of proportion.
“Men occasionally stumble over the truth but most pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing has happened.” – Winston Churchill
“Our society finds truth too strong a medicine to digest undiluted. In its purest form, truth is not a polite tap on the shoulder. It is a howling reproach.”- Ted Koppel
The truth will set you free, but first it will make you angry.
When you approach a problem, strip yourself of preconceived opinions and prejudice.
The essence of realistic thinking is discovering, picturing and examining the worst case scenario.
UTILIZE STRATEGIC THINKING
Most people spend more time planning their summer vacation than planning their lives.
Spend a half day planning the next 40 days.
“Masterplanning”-Bob Beihl
“Our company has a short range plan and a long range plan. The short range plan is to stay afloat long enough to make it to the long range plan.”
Ask why before how
Before it can be solved, a problem must be clearly defined.
Challenge all your assumptions.
Continue to collect data after you think you identified the issue.
Begin by asking, what else could be the real issue.
A strategy that does not take into account resources is doomed to failure.
Take an inventory.
Strategic thinking is like showering. You have to keep doing it.
The will to win is worthless if you do not have the will to prepare.
EXPLORE POSSIBILITY THINKING
When you believe that you can do something difficult, and you succeed, many doors open for you.
Possibility thinking increases others’ possibilities.
Every time you remove a label of impossible, you increase your potential off the charts.
A possibility thinker is not a naturally optimistic person.
If you want to get into positive thinking, just eliminate all the negative thoughts from your mind and what’s left will be fine.’
If possibility thinking is new to you, you’re going to have to give yourself a lot of coaching to eliminate some of the negative self-talk in your head.
Find possibilities in any situation
Dream one size bigger
Most people dream too small.
“Make your plans as fantastic as you like, because twenty five years from now, they will seem mediocre. Make your plans ten times as great as you first planned, and twenty-five years from now you will wonder why you did not make them fifty times as great.”-Henry Curtis
“Some men see things as they are and say ‘Why?’ I dream of things that never were and say “Why not?’” – George Bernard Shaw
LEARN FROM REFLECTIVE THINKING
Review calendar and journal
Year. Turning point. Impact
Event. Significance. Action point.
Use:
Look at again
File by subject
QUESTION POPULAR THINKING
“The difficulty lies not so much in developing new ideas as escaping from the old ones.” – John Maynard Keynes
If you want to become a good thinker, then start preparing yourself for the possibility of becoming unpopular.
The problem with popular thinking is that it doesn’t require you to think at all.
Popular = normal = average
Challenge the process
Make decisions based on what is best and right not what is popular
Relationships are the key to a decent world
Hurting people hurt people
Listening to advice often accomplishes far more than heeding it
When I spend time with anyone else, I have an agenda. I know what I want to accomplish.
Nothing adds value like a lot of good thinkers putting their minds together
It you want to improve your world, focus on helping others
People with humility don’t think less of themselves, they just think of themselves less.
Be afraid to die until you have accomplished some victory for humanity
RELY ON BOTTOM LINE THINKING
“There ain’t no rules around here. We are trying to accomplish something.” – Thomas Edison
Create a strategic plan to achieve the bottom line
“Whatever things are true noble just pure lovely are of good report. If there is any virtue in anything praiseworthy; think on these things”. – Paul the apostle
I noticed during the original reading and in compiling these notes that some of these concepts appear to contradict each other.
Editing note: I chose to omit a few citations where the original source was not verified in spot checking.
Other books I intend to read by John Maxwell:
Falling Forward