Big

Read the opening page of David Schwartz's The Magic of Thinking Big and the story of his six-year-old son's ambition to become a Professor of Happiness will leave you energetic.

Now that I've brought with me this self-help classic on my conference leave, I'm halfway through the book. If there was one lesson learned from this book, it was this: think big, smile big, and grow big.

Let's see an example put up by the author and see what you think: How many times have you been summoned by your boss to accomplish a special task when your timetable has already been darn full?

Think for a minute about the best reply.

Yes, we can give our boss three reasons we should take the task but hundred more justifications why we're simply too busy to handle. But please, I'm told, find ways to believe you can.

The following advice by David Schwartz is important enough to quote at length: Where there's a will, there is a way. And I am growing more and more convinced that I should stick to my habit of never turning down the boss.