The Magic of Thinking Big as We Whittle Down

Pearl One

One takeaway from the Taylor Swift and Kelce Travis phenomenon, is that — politics aside — we can all take a page from their playbook.

The two are walking examples of what “Thinking Big” is all about.

Taylor was Thinking Big when she pleaded with her parents to move to Nashville. And Travis was Thinking Big when he aimed for the NFL and went on to become one of the greatest tight-ends in football history.

Travis continued to Think Big when he sent a bracelet with his phone number to Taylor’s “people.”

Who invented the idea of thinking big? My guess is that it came from the Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz which I highly recommend.

I became a travel writer using the idea behind the Magic of Thinking Big, I just hadn’t realized that it had a name.

Protect Yourself

Whenever you’re shooting for the stars, protect yourself by not telling the peanut gallery a thing. Same goes for Eeyores. If I’d asked a group of writers how to break into travel writing, I’m pretty confident that they would’ve laughed and said, “every writer on the planet wants to be a travel writer” and “good luck with that.”

Very disappointed, I would have thrown in the towel.

Sadly, the peanut gallery and the Eeyores are alive and well.

These are the folks who stomp on dreams and tell us that our plans are “pie in the sky.” Think about it: the peanuts and Eeyore have inadvertently told you about their mind-set, and have no idea what you can and can’t make happen.

One last Thinking Big tip: the secret sauce to bringing a BIG project to life is get comfortable with not knowing how the BIG project will unfold. Don’t feel like you have to have every single detail in place before you begin. You might tell yourself, “I don’t know how it’s going to happen, I only know that it’ll happen.” ♥

Pearl Two

I was watching Comediennes in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, and on the episode with Alec Baldwin, Alec asks Jerry, “your life is just one green light after another, isn’t it Jerry?”

It’s a joke meant to make us laugh and nothing more.

But look closer. Baldwin is saying that we’ve all had yellow and red lights. It’s a great joke to crack because we all “get it” that life is really hard. It’s so tempting to think, “She’s had it much easier than me.”

No.

It’s a good joke because we can all relate.

It’s just that the Baldwins and Seinfelds of the world, deal with the red lights of life differently from your average bear.

Gems from the Journal

When Life says, “no”, the successful might lick their wounds for a moment, but then they get back to it. Suggestion, write answers to these questions in your journal: what can I do to avoid getting hungry? What positive change can I make? How come I dislike tracking my food so much? Do I take my cold-tote with me? What’s one thing that’s going really well? What do I want to improve?

When we journal, we’re stepping outside of ourselves long enough to allow creative ideas to cascade into our pen.

I have my own struggle with food of late.

Let’s struggle together. ♥

Pearl Three

A sequence every week

A sequence from my life:

Situation: my sons are 21 year olds and have long heard us promote the idea, “get your degree, but live at home.” Yet they spend few hours at home in current times.

Thought: “What’s happening?? We had this whole love-fest thing going on.”

Feeling: Confused, angry, and very sad.

Action: What I once would have done: I’d head for the ice cream. I might have even bugged the boys, “what’s the matter? Why won’t you tell me?” “Come on, it’s me!! You remember me, right?”

Result:  let one bowl of ice cream spiral into days, weeks, months of living off the Smart Eating Path. Jeans are much too tight everything is headed downhill.

New sequence with a chosen thought:

Situation my sons are 21 year olds have long heard us promote the idea, “get your degree, but live at home.” Yet they spend few hours at home in current times.

My chosen thought: From my therapist brain, “the closer you are to them, the harder they’ll pull away.”   I remind myself that a lioness in the wild would never “baby” her full-grown lion-sons. Can you imagine a lion-mom navigating the Tanzania plains with her three sons; all adult male lions with those gorgeous, flowing manes?! For one, how would she ever become a grandma-lion?

Moms know: we’re working ourselves out job. Sad, but I get it.

Feeling:  I feel more settled like, “oh, okay. This makes sense.”

Action: Return to my book or writing project.

Result:  I’m getting my work done!

“Hakuna Matata!” ♥

Pearl Four

Pearl four is an amazing book recommendation; not a review, just an awesome book I want to share

In the late 90s, this book’s debut landed on everyone’s “best of” lists, including Oprah and her book club but it’s the book that kept me company as I healed from a surgery.  

The Poisonwood Bible by Alice Hoffman. The dad, an evangelical Baptist, takes his wife and four daughters where you’d expect a guy to take the gals: to the Congo to “homestead” (when the Congo was going through political strife which in real life actually ended well). The story is told by the five female characters: the mom opens the book and the daughters take it from there. Hoffman is lauded for how distinctly the daughter were drawn. I haven’t to this in audio, but I bet it’s good.

I should add: this isn’t a quick weekend-read, but this book-dessert could make the next two weeks fly by!! The Poisonwood Bible by Alice Hoffman. ♥

Pearl Five

“Lack of time is actually lack of priorities.”
– Tim Ferriss ♥

Life has been humming along just fine, but I’m disgruntled. I think it’s allergies. I take allergy meds from Kroger, but some days are just not fun.

Guess what? Remember that my book came out a few months ago? Well, I finally found the time to fix all of the problems: mainly the font-size was way too big.

Amazon sent me the changes, and now it looks like a real book!! If you bought one from me before, I’m happy to replace it with this better version! Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.

For everyone else, I hope you’ll take a look: the Inspired Eater: Fed Up!

Have a great weekend!

♥, Wendy

P.S. Are you new to the Inspired Eater? Welcome!! This blog won’t make much sense until you first read the Aunt Bea post (and you’ll find Aunt Bea on this page to the right under my short bio). On your cell you’ll see it immediately following the first post. After you enter your email address, the Aunt Bea article will be sent to your email’s inbox. If it’s not there, you might check the spam folder. And always feel free to email me at Wendy@TheInspiredEater.com and I’ll get Aunt Bea right to you!

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I am not an expert, a doctor, a surgeon, a nurse or a nutritionist: the information within TheInspiredEater.com is based solely on my personal experience and is not intended to be used as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. ♥