The Spread of Big and Small Ideas
Expert from The Think Big Manifesto by Michael Port, p. 139-145.
Our values and actions are contagious.
When we think big, it is contagious. But beware: When we, or others think small, the influence is that much more virulent. As much as we influence others, so are we are at risk of catching others’ values and actions, of coming under their influence. If we surround ourselves with small thinkers, we will think small.
Remember this, too: We are our own most dangerous source of contagion. It is our own small thoughts that can act most virulently against our big thoughts. As Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote 100 years ago in her still beloved children’s book, The Secret Garden, “…[T]houghts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live.”
The irony is this: The negative energy and influence of small thinking ripples outward through our networks with a force greater than the positive energy of big thinking. Small thinking has the power to suck in everything around it. To influence and sway small thoughts, big thinking must at first exert twice the strength to achieve a fraction of the same force. Bad news.
Good news: Everything has side effects. The negative energy of small thinking is preset to autodestruct in its own entropic circle of influence. Negativity can prevail only so long. In the end it feeds on itself so ferociously that it will consume itself. At the basest level, a network spreading disease (whether a cold or obesity or cancer) cannot long survive its own natural demise. So, too, a network spreading dis-ease and small thinking will ultimately close in on itself under the weight of its negativity.
We are all part of different networks. Our influence is more than we think. It matters that we think big, because others around us are affected by our thinking and being and actions. And we are influenced by the others’ thoughts more than we know. It matters to think big, to protect against the negative influences we may encounter. We must don our mental crampons against the slippery slopes of negativity and compromise. Gird ourselves against the great negativistic vacuum that will eventually create a black hole where once there were small thoughts. Only by thinking big, fiercely, ferociously, with all our will, can we withstand this vacuum.
When we think big we are aware at all times of what we are influencing and what influences us. We undertake to bring positivity to relationships, but we will not take away others’ negativity. We give what we give, but we are careful about what we take away. Relationships are not transactional.
We are connected to others, but we are not, and should not be, attached. We are under no obligation to take on someone else’s issues or absorb others’ negativity. As we begin to think bigger, our networks may change. Yes, our friends, lovers, and colleagues may change. We will need to make serious decisions about those we can keep in our lives and those we cannot. Just as we draw people to us with our values and actions, so we will shed those who are not yet ready to think big, who cling to small thinking.
Who brings you down? Who makes you feel good? Who in your life thinks small? Who in your life thinks big?
Amanda is a regular on the Think Big Revolution weekly call. When she started thinking big, opening her own business, her husband of 20 years didn’t support her efforts. He was jealous of her dream (not to mention her budding success) and obstructive of everything she tried to do. She realized that his behavior was simply a continuation of his generally abusive behavior toward her over the course of their marriage. Not only did Amanda think big enough to build her own business, she tackled the next challenge and left her unhealthy marriage.
There is a myth about success: that those who achieve it leave many behind. Perhaps a few who achieve success are like this; more often, though, it is envy or ill will that prevents the less successful from following their friends. We may fear success because we are not comfortable with how those around us will deal with our success. That’s thinking small, on both sides. When we think big, we will succeed, and we cannot fear the advent of success and its side effects. We must be ready to leave behind those who will not support us, who will not celebrate with us, just as we would celebrate their successes. We are never held back from big thinking by others. We hold ourselves back by allowing others’ influence to negatively affect us.
We will refuse to adopt the negative values and habits of those around us: our lover who is depressed and causes us to be depressed; our friend who gossips about, envies, and criticizes others and encourages us to do the same; and our colleague who cuts corners, procrastinates, and does the minimum amount necessary to maintain the status quo.
We will break with negative influences. But it must be done consciously and specifically to be effective. I can’t be around you right now. It’s just not the right energy for me. Harsh? Possibly. Healthy? Yes. We cannot think big if we are surrounded by small thinking, negative influences and bad habits: the friend who supports us, but doesn’t believe in us; the partner whose lifestyle is unhealthy; the business colleague who takes comfort in mediocrity.
We will be a positive influence and we will surround ourselves with positive influences. That’s what big thinking is and what it requires. Ron Quintero grew up in the foster care system and spent some time living on the streets. He might have settled into his comfortable UPS job, which offered secure benefits and a decent wage, but he didn’t. He quit UPS to pursue his dream of a career in real estate. He ran through his savings, and his home went into foreclosure. His girlfriend stuck with him. She supported him and believed in him. She thought big with him. Now Ron Quintero is the founder of My Resource Center, Mortgage Leaders Edge, Debt Advisory Alliance, and Finance This Home, a suite of highly successful businesses.
We cannot change others, only ourselves. We can hope to influence them only by the integrity of our own behavior and actions. There’s so little time to waste. We must think big now.
Think big.
Think big.
Words have the potential to lose their meaning through overuse. Sometimes it seems as if everyone is talking about big thinking. Yet note how they are talking about it, what they mean when they say it…too often it is thinking big from a consumption point of view. For so many, thinking big is about being larger, about having more: more fame, more money, more power, more influence. Thinking big is not about quantity, about more. More is not expansive. Big thinking is expansive.
Big thinking is open and generous, discerning and judicious, yet not judgmental. Big thinking is not excessive, nor is it about the pursuit of excess. Rather, it is moderate.
Big thinking by its nature avoids the problem of extremes.
Nothing is all good or all bad in this universe of contradictions. We fall into the dangerous trap of small thinking when we succumb to a belief in extremes, starting with a necessarily false belief in some universal infallibility, or worse still, our own.
To think expansively is to begin again and again at first principles, with the beginner’s openness toward the world coupled with the wisdom of experience—our own and, as important, that of others.
To live in integrity is to be and to think and to act in the current of positive energy created by the expansiveness of big thinking.
What are your dreams, hopes, ambitions, and goals? Have small thoughts killed your aspirations? If so, whose small thoughts? Your own? Those of others?
Dream. Aspire. Do.
Click here for The Think Big Manifesto, today only, bonus campaign page.
Click here for direct link to Amazon.com.
Our values and actions are contagious.
When we think big, it is contagious. But beware: When we, or others think small, the influence is that much more virulent. As much as we influence others, so are we are at risk of catching others’ values and actions, of coming under their influence. If we surround ourselves with small thinkers, we will think small.
Remember this, too: We are our own most dangerous source of contagion. It is our own small thoughts that can act most virulently against our big thoughts. As Frances Hodgson Burnett wrote 100 years ago in her still beloved children’s book, The Secret Garden, “…[T]houghts—just mere thoughts—are as powerful as electric batteries—as good for one as sunlight is, or as bad for one as poison. To let a sad thought or a bad one get into your mind is as dangerous as letting a scarlet fever germ get into your body. If you let it stay there after it has got in you may never get over it as long as you live.”
The irony is this: The negative energy and influence of small thinking ripples outward through our networks with a force greater than the positive energy of big thinking. Small thinking has the power to suck in everything around it. To influence and sway small thoughts, big thinking must at first exert twice the strength to achieve a fraction of the same force. Bad news.
Good news: Everything has side effects. The negative energy of small thinking is preset to autodestruct in its own entropic circle of influence. Negativity can prevail only so long. In the end it feeds on itself so ferociously that it will consume itself. At the basest level, a network spreading disease (whether a cold or obesity or cancer) cannot long survive its own natural demise. So, too, a network spreading dis-ease and small thinking will ultimately close in on itself under the weight of its negativity.
We are all part of different networks. Our influence is more than we think. It matters that we think big, because others around us are affected by our thinking and being and actions. And we are influenced by the others’ thoughts more than we know. It matters to think big, to protect against the negative influences we may encounter. We must don our mental crampons against the slippery slopes of negativity and compromise. Gird ourselves against the great negativistic vacuum that will eventually create a black hole where once there were small thoughts. Only by thinking big, fiercely, ferociously, with all our will, can we withstand this vacuum.
When we think big we are aware at all times of what we are influencing and what influences us. We undertake to bring positivity to relationships, but we will not take away others’ negativity. We give what we give, but we are careful about what we take away. Relationships are not transactional.
We are connected to others, but we are not, and should not be, attached. We are under no obligation to take on someone else’s issues or absorb others’ negativity. As we begin to think bigger, our networks may change. Yes, our friends, lovers, and colleagues may change. We will need to make serious decisions about those we can keep in our lives and those we cannot. Just as we draw people to us with our values and actions, so we will shed those who are not yet ready to think big, who cling to small thinking.
Who brings you down? Who makes you feel good? Who in your life thinks small? Who in your life thinks big?
Amanda is a regular on the Think Big Revolution weekly call. When she started thinking big, opening her own business, her husband of 20 years didn’t support her efforts. He was jealous of her dream (not to mention her budding success) and obstructive of everything she tried to do. She realized that his behavior was simply a continuation of his generally abusive behavior toward her over the course of their marriage. Not only did Amanda think big enough to build her own business, she tackled the next challenge and left her unhealthy marriage.
There is a myth about success: that those who achieve it leave many behind. Perhaps a few who achieve success are like this; more often, though, it is envy or ill will that prevents the less successful from following their friends. We may fear success because we are not comfortable with how those around us will deal with our success. That’s thinking small, on both sides. When we think big, we will succeed, and we cannot fear the advent of success and its side effects. We must be ready to leave behind those who will not support us, who will not celebrate with us, just as we would celebrate their successes. We are never held back from big thinking by others. We hold ourselves back by allowing others’ influence to negatively affect us.
We will refuse to adopt the negative values and habits of those around us: our lover who is depressed and causes us to be depressed; our friend who gossips about, envies, and criticizes others and encourages us to do the same; and our colleague who cuts corners, procrastinates, and does the minimum amount necessary to maintain the status quo.
We will break with negative influences. But it must be done consciously and specifically to be effective. I can’t be around you right now. It’s just not the right energy for me. Harsh? Possibly. Healthy? Yes. We cannot think big if we are surrounded by small thinking, negative influences and bad habits: the friend who supports us, but doesn’t believe in us; the partner whose lifestyle is unhealthy; the business colleague who takes comfort in mediocrity.
We will be a positive influence and we will surround ourselves with positive influences. That’s what big thinking is and what it requires. Ron Quintero grew up in the foster care system and spent some time living on the streets. He might have settled into his comfortable UPS job, which offered secure benefits and a decent wage, but he didn’t. He quit UPS to pursue his dream of a career in real estate. He ran through his savings, and his home went into foreclosure. His girlfriend stuck with him. She supported him and believed in him. She thought big with him. Now Ron Quintero is the founder of My Resource Center, Mortgage Leaders Edge, Debt Advisory Alliance, and Finance This Home, a suite of highly successful businesses.
We cannot change others, only ourselves. We can hope to influence them only by the integrity of our own behavior and actions. There’s so little time to waste. We must think big now.
Think big.
Think big.
Words have the potential to lose their meaning through overuse. Sometimes it seems as if everyone is talking about big thinking. Yet note how they are talking about it, what they mean when they say it…too often it is thinking big from a consumption point of view. For so many, thinking big is about being larger, about having more: more fame, more money, more power, more influence. Thinking big is not about quantity, about more. More is not expansive. Big thinking is expansive.
Big thinking is open and generous, discerning and judicious, yet not judgmental. Big thinking is not excessive, nor is it about the pursuit of excess. Rather, it is moderate.
Big thinking by its nature avoids the problem of extremes.
Nothing is all good or all bad in this universe of contradictions. We fall into the dangerous trap of small thinking when we succumb to a belief in extremes, starting with a necessarily false belief in some universal infallibility, or worse still, our own.
To think expansively is to begin again and again at first principles, with the beginner’s openness toward the world coupled with the wisdom of experience—our own and, as important, that of others.
To live in integrity is to be and to think and to act in the current of positive energy created by the expansiveness of big thinking.
What are your dreams, hopes, ambitions, and goals? Have small thoughts killed your aspirations? If so, whose small thoughts? Your own? Those of others?
Dream. Aspire. Do.
Click here for The Think Big Manifesto, today only, bonus campaign page.
Click here for direct link to Amazon.com.
Comment
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Comment by Sophia Zoe on May 23, 2009 at 1:01am -
Go wide, think big! If time, money, health, energy, weather and resources were no object, how big would your dream be?
I am currently an Energy Therapist, using several forms of Energy Psychology to help clients with emotional, physical and spiritual issues. But back when I was doing a lot of acting, I was usually cast in comedic roles. How did I know if I "landed" my character? I would give it everything I had - I mean I would focus and get in character and nothing else mattered. When I was doing cartoon voices, I would exert even more energy, be funnier, or meaner, or whatever was called for...and when I felt like a complete fool, I knew I was half-way there. That's how big I had to go to be authentic and convincing in my characterization.
I'm thinking...if we're all just characters on the stage of Theatre Earth...and there are so many extras in all our scenes...we really have to play big so we can be seen and heard by the audience in the back row. It is embarrassing and painful to watch a bad actor on stage. Therefore, we are "acting" badly if we don't play big in our lives. We are embarrassing ourselves if we don't find our authentic voice. How painful for our spirit to endure such mediocrity!
Yes, it's been said: "Life is not a dress rehearsal." Iron your costume, do your make-up and get out there!
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Comment by Patrick Smith on May 18, 2009 at 9:27pm -
Bravo Michael,
Truly amazing writing. I have been away from this community for a while. Creating music, spending time with family, investigating other communities. Always busy reading, reflecting and digesting. This post is very powerful and inspiring. Many many thanks.
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Comment by Dr. John Loblack on April 27, 2009 at 10:27pm
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Michael,
I agree wholeheartedly with your assertion that "we are our own most dangerous source of contagion. It is our own small thoughts that can act most virulently against our big thoughts." With that said, we need to recondition ourselves to think more expansively than we have ever done. We need to do this because it is our conditioning that forces us to think the way we do. The first step we need to take is to stop ourselves from becoming too idle. During those idle moments, negative/small thoughts take over.
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Comment by Pace on April 27, 2009 at 5:29pm -
Steve Pavlina says "Connect with what you do want, and disconnect with what you don't want." So many people (myself included, fairly often) remember the first half but forget the second half. They connect with what they do want, then feel overwhelmed, or they burn out because they haven't disconnected from naysayers who are sucking their passion and energy.
I like the way you talk about the difference between being attached and being connected. That's another mistake I've made in the past; I thought that the only alternative to attachment was detachment. I didn't want to be a cold, detached hermit, so I got attached to many things and was crushed when they didn't turn out as I expected. But now I realize that there's a third alternative: to be engaged, or connected, without being attached. To care about the outcome without attaching my self-worth to its outcome. To connect with it without laying down roots in it.
I'm ridiculously excited to read the rest of this book, and even more ridiculously excited to help spread the revolution. Other than the obvious method of telling everyone how awesome the book is (as I'm confident it is) and sharing lots of copies, how else can I support you and support the revolution? Let me know, okay? Thanks.
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Comment by Karla Hurley on April 27, 2009 at 5:14pm -
Very Inspiring. Thank you.
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Comment by Carolyn Winter on April 27, 2009 at 4:27pm -
Every self responsible revolutionary must commit to clearing their own non-coherent thinking, unresolved hurt and unmet life needs that have kept them tied to small thinking. As vibrational beings, we attract in our sphere exactly what we already are and the relationships in our lives become mirrors of what is going on inside of us. We can only change others though our own process of self-awareness and growth.
In the process of evolving ourselves and others I am inspired by the works of Ken Wilber and the tiers of consciousness. According to the theory, at various lower levels of consciousness we are charactoristically tied to distinct values and beliefs associated with ascending levels of a lower tier (tier one). The majority of the world functions at tier one consciousness (ego driven). The second tier of ascending levels of consciousness (by your description is revolutionary) is where we can embrace and accept people at all levels and yet transcend the limitations of the values and beliefs tied to those levels. At this spirit driven level we transcend and include.
It means paradoxically perhaps, that we must accept small revolutions for what they are ... people on a path of concsiousness doing what they are bound to do. Only when we accept that can revolutionaries speed up ascending consciousness by offering 'vacations' to the higher levels or put another way opportunities to be inspired and stretched outside a comfort zone of thinking. Like an elastic band, lower tiers of consciousness will stretch for this experience, and then return to their normal state, - but never quite the same. Like the ideal dream vacation you once had, it remains with you and changes you - at least a little.
Movies like the "Secret" made it sound so easy... just change your thinking if you want another result. While I know that is true, it is also true, that we often need outside help to really 'see' ourselves. We need feedback loops and sometimes tools. If we are hanging out with the same old revolutionaries, we may not get the new information we need to hear. It is safer but growth is limited and so is our revolution.
As revolutionaries, we must both employ tools for our own self awareness and provide growth opportunites for others following us on the path. We must hang out with groups that can support our growing edge today and know when to leave the group or join a new group. If we stay too long we stagnate. If we arrive too soon we are over-whelmed. If we are in good timing everyone is growing.
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Comment by Toña Morales-Calkins on April 27, 2009 at 1:43pm -
"Words have the potential to lose their meaning through overuse. Sometimes it seems as if everyone is talking about big thinking."
Michael, you are so right. If we engage in too much discussion of big thinking, the words do lose their meaning.
Think big.
The first time I heard this phrase, my mind went wide. Literally, there were spaces opening inside my mind, ready to absorb and integrate and grow with new thoughts and insights. I began to do it.
Think big.
The second time this phrase came around, it was on a fast food billboard advertising large meals. The words got smaller because of the concrete association in the picture. (Even though it was a 12 foot-high box of french fries!)
Think big.
Next, it was on a news show as I passed by the lobby TVs to an appointment. The words got smaller because I knew the commentator was talking about the next "offensive in the war on terror."
Think big.
I hear those words from Michael Port and my mind goes wide again. I know that's what he's talking about. And I am ready. And I am doing it.
"To think expansively is to begin again and again at first principles, with the beginner’s openness toward the world coupled with the wisdom of experience—our own and, as important, that of others.
To live in integrity is to be and to think and to act in the current of positive energy created by the expansiveness of big thinking."
My mind is going wide once again.
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Comment by Pamela Slim on April 27, 2009 at 1:41pm -
How amazing that The Secret Garden was my Mom's favorite book as a child, then mine. I had totally forgotten about that quote.
How things come full-circle!
I love it Michael, and have experienced all the things you described in this post. Growth is so good, AND it ain't easy.
Long live thinking big. :)
-P
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Comment by Eddie W. Reeves on April 27, 2009 at 1:22pm
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Michael, this is great!!! I LOVED your insights on the teleclass today -- especially the George Orwell quote: "In a world of deciet, to tell the truth is a revolutionary act." Stupendous!!! You, sir, are a Godsend.
Please check out my post when you get a minute.
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Comment by Kirk Hoffman on April 27, 2009 at 1:11pm -
"Small thinking has the power to suck in everything around it."
If this is true (and I believe that it is), Thinking Big is a fundamental need both individually and corporately.
Some results of small thinking: abused families, legalistic punishments, infidelity, corporate theft, get-rich-quick schemes, obesity, war, religious extremism, poverty, hunger, genocide.
We need a shift in thought. We need our people, both our leaders and the masses, to embrace thinking big.
We need to stop and reverse the entropic spiral.
We need to start today.
Thank you Michael.
© 2013 Created by Michael Port.
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