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 topic? My guess is that it came from the Magic of Thinking Big by David J. Schwartz which I highly recommend reading.

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

How to Stay Safe

Whenever you’re shooting for the stars, protect yourself by not telling the peanut gallery anything. You don’t need an Eeyore in your life right now (or ever). 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, “good luck with that.”

And that attitude alone would’ve sent me in the wrong direction. Protect your new strategy or plan or even your fondest hope.

In case you hadn’t heard the peanut gallery is alive and well. These are the folks who love to tell others that their big dreams are “pie in the sky.” Stay away from the peanuts. They’re Eeyores who are inadvertently telling you about their mind-set, not yours. Think about it: the Eeyore has no idea what you can and can’t make happen.

As you use Thinking Big to your advantage, keep in mind that you won’t necessarily see the end result right away. I became a travel writer because I wanted my sons to travel, but I just assumed it would take the form of camping. What ended up happening blew me away.

Making it up as you go is the secret sauce to Thinking Big. ♥

Pearl Two

I was watching Comediennes in Cars Getting Coffee with Jerry Seinfeld, and it’s on the episode with Alec Baldwin 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. Answer 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 come to life.

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 years old and we’ve long promoted the idea, “get your degree, but live at home.”

They’re both pulling away from me and it’s so painful, we’d been so close and it’s been hard to have my precious sons behave like I’m an old bike they left in the garage.

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 boys are 21 years old and we’ve long promoted the idea, “get your degree, but live at home.” They’re both pulling away from me and we’d been so close and it’s so hard to have my precious sons behave like I’m an old bike left in the garage.

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 walking around with her three once adorable and fuzzy cubs who today are adult male lions all with those huge, beautiful manes?

Moms are working themselves out of their job. Sad, but I get it,.

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

Action: Return to my book or writing project.

Result:  I’m getting my work done! ♥

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 book! Wendy@theInspiredEater.com.

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

♥, 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. ♥