The Top 10 Distinctions Between Winners and Whiners

Chapter 8. Winners think big. Whiners think small.

Most of us have been trained from the time we were very young to think small—we've been taught only to survive, and survival thinking is narrow in its focus. When you shift your focus beyond survival, to the larger goal of freedom, you will find your thinking will expand, too.

Thinking big requires a conscious choice, and once we begin to make this choice on a consistent basis, we begin to understand how limiting our perceptions have been. When we choose to think bigger, we start to see possibilities, and our perceptions and opinions begin to transform.

Faith is the belief in good things happening, and thinking big is the fruit of that faith. By exercising your faith, you experience positive feelings and emotions. Thinking big produces excitement and joy. Thinking small produces fear and anxiety. Fear is to believe that bad things are going to happen. Small thinking is the fruit of fear. Winners exercise their faith by taking action towards their deep desires. Whiners live in fear and ignore their dreams and goals.

I believe everyone has a big dream. Winners pursue theirs with belief that it can be achieved. Since whiners think small, they doubt that their big dream is possible. Their lack of faith can be seen in the difference between the questions that winners and whiners ask themselves. For example, winners ask, "How can I?" while whiners ask, "Can I?"

Winners assume they can—they just need to learn how. Whiners want to believe they ...