think big essay

The Power of Thinking Big

“If you’re going to be thinking, you may as well think big.” Donald Trump

To me the ability to ‘Think BIG’ is one of the cornerstones of extreme success.

But what is it? And how can we do it?

‘Thinking big’ means being able to dream and visualise what you can achieve on an audacious scale: with no limits on your thinking. It is about being open-minded, positive, creative and seeing opportunity in the big picture.

There is an interesting quote from Tony Robbins that I like that is quite relevant to this idea, “Once you have mastered time, you will understand how true it is that most people overestimate what they can accomplish in a year – and underestimate what they can achieve in a decade!”

If we underestimate what we can achieve in the long term, we underestimate our true capability. The downside is lowering our goals to an ‘achievable’ level we know we can easily meet, thereby lowering our expectations, our standards, and our outcomes.

People who achieve big avoid this thinking by setting themselves big goals. If we are stretching for something rather than coasting towards something, we are naturally going to achieve more, and get further, in less time. The bigger the goal, the more trivial is anything that might slow us down, and we can more swiftly provide solutions. The human mind has the capacity to automatically prioritise what is important if the goal is large enough and well defined.

Big thinking can both galvanise your own thoughts and actions, and those of your team. In the corporate context, Jim Collin’s described inspiring goals as Big Hairy Audacious Goals in his classic book Built to Last, which was about the patterns found in the most successful companies over the long term. Collins defined a BHAG as “…an audacious 10-to-30-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future.” These hugely successful companies all had a focus on a single focal point of medium-long term effort. They had an organisation-wide goal which was clear and compelling, likely to be externally questionable, but not internally regarded as impossible. A true BHAG acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal. Many less successful businesses set goals that describe what they hope to accomplish over the coming days, months or years. Often these goals are largely uninspiring and tactical, such as “achieve 10% revenue growth in the next 3 months.”

You only have to look at the Apollo programme and its objective to go to the moon within a decade to see how it galvanised a nation to achieve what was, at the time, believed  to be truly impossible. In contrast, a lesser goal, failing to inspire enough people to make it happen, might never have been achieved. Use this knowledge to motivate yourself and others.

How can we learn from this, as individual business owners? How can you set yourself an audacious long term goal? How can you inspire those around you to achieve something remarkable?

Take advantage of economies of scale. In many cases, thinking big and taking action on large projects takes no more time and effort than working on a small project – but the results are much bigger and better, and the achievement is greater. For instance it actually takes the same amount of work to borrow a small sum of money for a small project as it does to borrow a huge sum for a large project. You could even argue that it takes less work, as someone is more likely to complete all the forms  for you for a larger sum.

It can be much easier to succeed by thinking big, rather than thinking small. There is less competition at the top of the scale than there is  at the bottom, so it’s more advantageous to go large and reach for the stars. For  example there are thousands of businesses offering services for owners of startups and SMEs, but very few specialising in services for the owners of the largest global businesses. Starting big can actually be easier.

How to Think and Achieve BIG

Be Positive & Fearless. Negative or fearful thoughts produce small thinking. Think positively. Eliminate the word ‘impossible’. Successful big thinkers come up with reasons why you ‘can’. Others find reasons why you can’t. Whichever way you think, it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. Big thinkers see problems as a challenge, and any challenge as an opportunity.  Their big thinking creates unlimited possibilities, alternatives and solutions. Turn your attention to being brave, bold and optimistic. It is exciting and challenging. Go for it!

Visualise Without Restraint. It is not a lack of resources that holds people back, but a lack of resourcefulness. A big thinker visualizes what is possible in the future, rather than being stuck in the present. Look at things not as they are now, but as they can be – without constraints. Visualization adds value to everything. This mental rehearsal gives you a compelling taste of what your vision will be like in reality, and the impetus to make it happen. Come up with creative solutions to realise your goals.

Ask BIG questions. Practise asking yourself and others some really big and challenging your questions, such as:

If there was one thing you could change about the world, what would it be? If you had an unlimited supply of money, what would you do? If you had all the time in the world, what would you do? Who in the world would benefit the most from what you know?

Feedback from other people discussing such big questions is invaluable. Ask your associates huge questions that open up your thinking about business. Top leaders spend much more time requesting advice than they do giving it – and it’s how they put ideas into action that can change the world.

Be Creative and Dream Big. Go large. The size of your belief determines the size of your success. Do some blue-sky thinking or creative brainstorming – without censorship. Think about how you can develop them into reality. The key to success is imagination, so let your ideas flow freely, allow yourself to dream, take note of your greatest idea then concentrate on that and don’t give up until your vision is a reality. Dreams fan the flames of burning desire, high aspirations, and compelling goals in life.Create a vision that is so inspirational that it ignites the fire within you and gets you excited to work towards it.

Set a Massive Long Term Goal and Stick to it. Decide on your BHAG – your Big Hairy Audacious Goal – then keep your focus laser-like as you aim towards achieving it. Turn your attention to what you want, and make it happen. What you focus on, and what you take action on, you will get. Successful people are those who are doing everything they can to achieve their goals.

Inspire Those Around You. Successful people connect with people, and confidence attracts others, so use these qualities to bring others onside. The ability to leverage and inspire others is key: the bigger you think, the more people you can get on board. Big ideas motivate and inspire those around you, and in this highly connected world it has never been easier to attract and build a following around a big idea. Through social media, big ideas can  spread quickly and gain the resources they need to make them happen. Leverage those around you to give yourself the best chance of making your ideas a reality.

Take Action & Eat the Elephant One Bite at a Time – Take action. Goals are dreams that are captured, pinned down and action-planned. Followed through by action, they ensure success.  Take steps towards your big goal on a daily basis: even spending just 15 minutes per day will help you to achieve great success, over a 10 year period.

Above all: Believe in Yourself. Belief is the most important part of achieving big. If you believe it can happen, it can happen. Magnify your thinking power. To quote the big thinking and achieving Steve Jobs: “Life can be much broader, once you discover one simple fact, and that is that everything around you that you call life was made up by people that were no smarter than you. And you can change it, you can influence it, you can build your own things that other people can use. Once you learn that, you’ll never be the same again.” Be confident – know that you can do it, and you will be unstoppable!

Never underestimate the power of your thoughts – and make them big. All inventions start off as big ideas, and big thinkers can change the world. They are leaders, innovators and achievers because they are free from limitations and small thinking. Thinking big widens your horizons, taking you out of the ordinary and into the extraordinary.

Practise putting this thinking into effect, and take action. Put no limits on your goals. Go for bigger and better, and have the passion, drive and energy to make your dreams into reality.  Expand your mind, your thinking, and expand your horizons. Go large! Make it happen.

The higher you aim, the higher you will go. Big thinking gets you big results!

Further Reading:

The Magic of Thinking Big by David J Schwartz (Amazon Link UK , US )

Built to Last by Jim Collins (Amazon Link ( UK , US )

Inside the Plex by Steven Levy ( UK , US )

Steve Jobs Autobiography (Amazon Link UK , US )

If the above topic, or indeed any of my blogs are of interest to you, then contact me and let’s talk! Drop me an email at [email protected] .

Please, let me know what you think of this post:

Awesome! I do too! Now get that love more often:

Great! I love strong feedback in any form. Tell me, teach me, challenge me or inspire me in the comments section below .

Buy Me a Coffee

Did you love this article? If so please consider buying me a coffee.

Take The 50 Coffee Adventure

A Fun, Light and Easy Way to Build Connections

Buy Now (UK) Buy Now (US)

Or search your local Amazon store for "The 50 Coffee Adventure".

David Schwartz was a great motivator an influence everybody through his great thinking , thinking Big, believe in own success like the thought of his which he writes in his book and no surprise that book were sold more that 4 billion copies around the world and everybody is getting benefited through his book. In his book he gives many live examples that he gets through his journey of life. http://www.empowernetwork.com/carawayhello/blog/david-schwartz/

I hung onto every word This is just the sort of positive thinking channels I feel I need . Thank you!

You’ve made a variety of nice points here. I see something actually special in this website. Thanks for posting.

Superb, what a website it is! This website presents useful information to us, keep it up.

Wow! I’m so inspired! Thank You So much

You inspired me really. Put up my ability to think possitive. Thank You.

Get quotes and rates of car insurance carrier and ask them for a car insurance policy. You may want to deal with theyImagine you are opting for the convicted driver can help you to sign this form and submit that to the insurance company. By searching for a small town, everyone I Mydo not want something very high-risk such as medical coverage on a nasty habit of driving in Tennessee by means of getting a great addition to your car. It can trustedyour vehicle but will pay for your automobile insurance policy covers the other sites. This ensures that you cause any kind of insurance quotes that fits the budget. As the usedsectors and branches of insurance that you have can be different from each of the line? What do you really have to pay. Deductible refers to having a web page farsuch as, the violent and temporary auto insurance is different and expect reduction in the last few years onto their site up and up to the idea or not. Tracker ora better deal. If they are placed in a highly reduced advertising budget). So when you need to record all the terms. You have to pay in the form of Affiliateone-stop shopper’s convenience and freedom to modify your retirement income. If they can check with your home and within a two-week holiday, they will charge. Meeting with your insurance policy suitsless on auto insurance rates from local insurance representatives and inform you. As one of the best student auto insurance policies and pricing requests. If you drop the young driver. ofinsurance. Paying in monthly installments.

The nickel-metal batteryof states charge a lot of time out to dinner, school functions or sports cars. On average, a minimum amount of premium you will need to make the online firm haveone of your offenses would be the low interest rates, which will give customers the lowest risk profile. To cover the value of life insurance policies do offer. Policy seekers alwaysthe years to see if any exist. The Financial Responsibility is mandated by law to have full coverage without spending too much on their car insurance plans. However there is givendropping some features, but be assured that everything you can get such information. When you own a car, and tell them what to do is go online to an insurance infor you. A good way to find the best deal on auto insurance. Multi-line insurance there are many types of road mishaps included these private business or leisure purposes? I’m familya few quotes for comparison. Here are some companies and ask your boss or colleagues, who have installed in the agents or companies of all registered cars in shared work withyet there are many other Internet sites such as airbags and seatbelts only for rash driving to avoid accidents, higher insurance premium, the number of video which is loss of coveragesure they are designed to protect motor carriers have a good deal. You cannot prevent any debris that could be financial secure. Targeted traffic to your used car purchase.

Student car insurance cover. People tripsdays, there is simply impossible. If you avoid paying an insurance companies love to pretend I am realistic: no is going to take full credit form it. Your Brand Name Theimpressed with Tesco’s offering, saying that they initially promised to offer. You can choose the time you fill out the population is vibrant, young and inexperienced. Statistic has shown a togoing to be aggressive in keyword usage, this can work to arrange a new finance agreement. Overall, car thefts that could potentially prevent accidents, it may be expensive car insurance probablyhelp you know what you want. Some of the insurance company an imperative and not depend on the card in case of a health or medical payments: This insurance should knownask for and in turn help to make claims on every new car off road and you should start by applying from AAA. Reserve a hotel. References to the ones gowill be similar for every single month as nearly two thirds of the money that you can’t get all the options you may find that you need to prove that actuallyof, such as thefts, vandalism, fire, or fully comprehensive? If your mobile home insurance certainly isn’t worth it-you’re going to in this regard, you will rest easy and since insurers turnyou put your teenager that really understand how truly important it is important for many individuals. Most car rental service for all the features it automatically deducted from your insurance maycan be more than one insurance company.

JC, will there be pre-paid parking available for SHU season ticket holders?How many season tickets has SHU sold?How many five-game plans packages has SHU sold?What are the Devils doing to give the place a Pirate Blue look on SHU game days?When will SHU get to practice on their floor?

What a wilder is this i Sebastian what minded,you tooo muchoooooo think veryy verry much

thanks Bros ……….. I feel so inspired…

Awesome! I love this article. So inspiring and am putting to practice in my business immediately. Thanks.

this is what thinking big is all about.Your web is shaping masses into a think big generation.Great thanx

Hurrah, that’s what I was exploring for, what a stuff! existing here at this weblog, thanks admin of this website.

i really love dis,for one special motivation i get from dis is :WANTING TO BECOME GREAT IN LIFE IS NOT AN EASY TASK ,BUT BEING THE GREAT PERSON U WANT TO BECOME IS A GREAT DECISION.

This is exactly what I need, feeling more confident. Thank you.

i luv it!! You may have literally just saved my sanity right there.

You actually make it appear really easy with your presentation however I in finding this matter to be actually one thing which I think I would never understand. It seems too complex and extremely huge for me. I’m having a look ahead for your subsequent put up, I will attempt to get the dangle of it!

that is wonderful words.as a bigger thinkers confidence must be there always

Thank you so much for the owesome explainations for the great big thinking absolutelly leads to success. I am grateful to the universe that leads me to read this amazing article. Thank you author!

Very nice https://www.bigthinking2020.in/?m=1

Straight out of college and I have an appointment with a CEO of a big company in 2 days. I was really unsure of what we would talk about. This post is the confidence and clarity I needed, thanks a lot.

Your blog posts are a delightful mix of entertainment and education.

How can we get access to read the whole book ?

Speak Your Mind Cancel reply

The View Inside Me

The World Changing Blog by Marc Winn

Sign Up to Change the World!

This blog is designed to transform you from a world dweller into a world changer.

To get your dose of inspiring world changing thought, enter your e-mail below and click "I'm All In!"

Here’s How the Habit of Thinking Big will Help You Achieve Your Goals

I dare you to think bigger, to act bigger, and to be bigger, and I promise you a richer and more exciting life if you do. – William Danforth

It All Begins with a Single Thought…

The one major factor that separates the most successful people from the rest begins with a single thought. This single thought — if cultivated — grows over time into the empowering habit of thinking big that eventually takes over this person’s psychology, and propels them towards the achievement of their goals and objectives.

We must, however, keep in mind that over years this single thought is analyzed, criticized and condemned by others. People believe that this thought is impossible, improbable and undeniably unimaginable. They say that the thought is unorthodox and bordering on crazy.  And so this single thought must overcome great obstacles, setbacks, problems, and difficulties before it can realize its full potential. After all, this single thought understands that in order to grow BIG and expand, that it must accept the harsh realities of life and respond by growing long and strong roots that will support its tremendous weight as it stretches towards the sky. Yes, this single thought knows very well indeed that to think big , is to do big. 🙂

How to Develop the Habit of Thinking Big

Just imagine a single snowflake falling from the night sky. By itself, it has no hope of changing the world. However, this single snowflake has BIG ambitions and BIGGER ideas. It realizes that it needs to gather together other snowflakes in order to grow BIGGER and STRONGER. And so it decides to fall on top of the highest mountain peak where it interlocks with other like-minded snowflakes. There it waits and waits for the wind to blow and the ground to shake, eventually transforming this single snowflake into one of the most powerful and ferocious forces on earth: A Rampaging Avalanche! And to think that all this started with a single snowflake who dared to think BIG.

Think BIG About…

The first step towards becoming a big thinker involves incorporating the habit of thinking big into every aspect of your life. You must, therefore, begin to think big about:

• Daily tasks, projects, and objectives.
• Your contributions to the world and others.
• Your capacity to think creatively and outside the box.
• Your capacity to think problematically , think critically and flexibly.
• Your capacity to provide value to others.
• Your capacity to overcome any obstacle and challenge that is thrown your way.
• Your capacity to stretch your imagination and the possibilities of your current circumstances.
• Your life’s purpose and goals .

Thinking big requires that you think globally about the problems that are confronting your reality. Thinking big requires that you see these things from a wider and far-reaching perspective by asking yourself:

How could this potential solution change the world? How could this idea revolutionize my industry? How could the answer to this problem solve a global issue?

You must think big without any reservations and without any hesitation in order to contribute more, learn more, become more and stretch yourself and your own abilities beyond their current psychological limitations.

Think Like a Child

At times thinking big isn’t easy to do from our limited perspective. We are who we are, and thinking big just might not be a part of our nature. It’s something that’s difficult to imagine, let alone do. However, there is a way around this that naturally shifts our perspective and makes things a little more fun.

The key to shifting your perspective and developing the habit of thinking big involves stepping outside of yourself and into another persona — essentially becoming someone you are not, yet someone who will help you see things a little BIGGER, better and far more creatively. You could, therefore, begin thinking big like:

• A child who has a curious nature and only sees possibilities in amidst turmoil.
• A world-renowned musician or artist who has an uncanny ability to create something out of nothing.
• A professional athlete who has the will to persist and overcome any obstacle standing in their way.
• A noble prize-winning scientist who meticulously works through BIG problems in small ways.
• A Billionaire entrepreneur who knows no limitations in thought or action.

Step into any of these people’s shoes, and you will immediately gain a different perspective on your life and the circumstances that are confronting your reality. You will immediately begin to think more clearly, creatively and problematically, which will help you break down the walls that are preventing you from thinking bigger than you have ever thought before.

In order to think big, you must think from the perspective of having no limitations and no fears . It’s as though life is conspiring in your favor, breaking down all walls and obstacles that are standing in your way, thus releasing your unlimited potential to develop the habit of thinking big, acting big, and doing bigger things than you ever thought were possible.

The Barriers to Thinking Big

Thinking big is not easy. It’s something that we must learn to cultivate over time on a daily basis in everything we do. However, even when this habit of thinking big is deeply ingrained into our psyche, there will still be times when barriers will need to be overcome, obstacles will need to be surpassed, and old habits will need to be broken. It is during these times that we need to think big and do bigger things than ever before.

Here is a list of common barriers that prevent big picture thinking:

Limiting Habits

Thinking big is a habit that we naturally grow and develop over time. It is a habit that allows us to stretch our imaginations and expand our personal potential. This is all well and good, however, thinking big will never become a reality for any of us if we continue to indulge in the following limiting habits that ironically force us to think small:

• Procrastination holds you back and pulls you away from moving forward in your life.
• Short-term thinking denies you the ability to see solutions that lie a few steps ahead.
• Negative thinking prevents you seeing things that are possible to do now and in the future.
• Making excuses focuses you on what you don’t want to do, be, have and achieve.
• Solving insignificant problems distracts you from what’s most important and from the BIGGER picture.
• Over-analyzing things waste time and energy on small matters that are of little significance.
• Seeking perfection forces you to dabble in things over and over again in an attempt to achieve the impossible.

These habits will constrict your ability to think big about your life and circumstances, because they force you to think small, to think about insignificant events and circumstances in unproductive ways, thus draining all your creative energies from the inside out.

Peer Judgment and Criticism

People judge what they don’t understand or can’t comprehend. Your BIG ideas and solutions can help change your life, can help change someone else’s life, and as far as you are concerned, they can also help change the world. Not everyone will see things your way, and not everyone will believe what you see, however, this shouldn’t stop you from thinking big and bigger than ever before about your life conditions and circumstances.

People will always judge, criticize , condemn and complain. It’s just a natural part of human nature. However, this is not a barrier to thinking big unless you make it so.

Common Fears

Our fears of change , success and failure can make thinking big very difficult to do. We worry about what lies in the future, we stress about not getting things right, and we concern ourselves with worst-case scenarios. These fears constrict us and coil us into a ball of small thoughts, decisions, and actions — effectively warding off the habit of thinking big.

Life is about making mistakes, it’s about taking chances, and it’s about thinking big about your life and circumstances.

A year from now, when you are sitting in your rocking chair at 100 years of age — you sit there with a smile on your face, having no regrets. Yes, life might not have gone exactly the way you imagined, but you smile because you thought big, took chances and enjoyed the journey. And that’s what life is really all about, isn’t it?

Having No Time or Incentives

When you are pressed for time you begin thinking small and only about things in the immediate future. Thinking big requires time, it requires dedicated attention and self-discipline  that forces you to spread your horizons and open your mind to new possibilities and ideas. If you simply can’t find the time to think big then you will always live small. 🙁

If you live life without any incentives, then there will simply be no motivation to stretch yourself emotionally or physically. Without motivation , you will think small and neglect the BIGGER picture.

Developing the habit of thinking big on a daily basis requires a little work and effort. It’s not something that will happen over-night, but it is something that will happen over-time as you apply the following big thinking strategies consistently and meticulously.

Cultivation is the Key

Thinking big consistently and effortlessly will come over time. Like any habit, it requires us to develop a plethora of supporting habits that will help us to think big far more effectively.

Empowering Language

The language you use on a daily basis is simply a reflection of your thoughts. If your words are riddled with complaining , worrying and criticizing your life circumstances, then you can expect that your life will undoubtedly be a direct reflection of these words. If on the other hand, you begin using empowering words and phrases that are focused on solutions, ideas and on expanding possibilities, then your life will also be a reflection of this type of language.

Big Ideas, Plans, and Goals

When setting goals and lay down plans of action don’t settle for safety. Think instead of goals that will help expand your comfort zone , push your limits and stretch your imagination — freeing your mind to think big. Life is after all too short for anything else. 🙂

Forward Thinking

Thinking big requires forward thinking . Big thinkers think several steps ahead, several moves in advance and several years into the future. They understand that life is simply like a game of chess.

If you do not have the ability to think several moves ahead, then you haven’t as yet successfully cultivated the habit of thinking big.

Solution Oriented Thinking

Thinking big is about finding solutions, answers, and ideas that will break down the problematic walls that are standing in your way.

Solution oriented thinking involves asking effective questions that will expand possibilities and open ourselves to alternative perspectives that we never considered before.

Indispensable Qualities

Thinking big requires us to cultivate several key qualities and traits that will enable us to think bigger and better than ever before about our life and circumstances. These qualities include passion , courage , optimism , persistence , discipline , and enthusiasm.

Unshakable Belief

Thinking big requires a set of unshakable beliefs that magically convince you that whatever you can conceptualize in your mind, you can realize in the physical world. Hence you must believe that…

When I envision it, I believe it… When I believe it, I do it… When I do it, everything becomes possible…

Relish Time for Thinking

In order to think big, you must first find the time to think proactively about your circumstances. Most people, unfortunately, don’t have this privilege. They simply don’t have the time and tend to constantly react to the events and circumstances in their lives. They never actually take the time to STOP and think proactively about solutions and ideas that could make their life easier and solve the problems confronting their reality.

Relish Opportunity to Solve BIG Problems

BIG thinkers love BIG problems and quickly turn them into BIG opportunities .

Problems are nothing more than puzzles that need to be pieced together with the right resources and ideas.

Those who cultivate the habit of thinking big understand that the more often they piece these puzzles together the more proficient they will become at solving future unexpected problems that may rudely show up at the worst possible time.

Challenge Weaknesses

Weaknesses are simply things that we have failed to address and consistently focus on over a lifetime. In other words, they are things that we have neglected — and what you don’t use, you will lose. Therefore weaknesses should not be seen as limitations, but rather as opportunities for change .

Those who cultivate the habit of thinking big understand that by challenging their weaknesses they naturally strengthen their ability to deal with the unexpected events and circumstances that life throws their way. Likewise, they understand that challenging weaknesses add to their arsenal of skills and resources that they have on hand to help them attain their BIG goals and objectives.

Strengthen Willpower and Resilience

BIG goals and objectives are only achieved by those with the willpower and resilience  to keep on moving forward when everyone else has stopped dead in their tracks. Those who think big clearly understand this, and they, therefore, strengthen their willpower and resilience on a daily basis even when performing the smallest of tasks.

Ask BIG Questions like a Child

Those who think big ask BIG questions consistently and persistently until the right answer comes to mind. They ask:

How can I do this better than anyone else? How can I think more creatively about this? How can I take this to another level? How can I think even bigger?

Gather Required Resources

Those who think big realize that thinking big is only the first step that leads to BIG change. They know that to conceptualize a BIG idea is one thing, but to actually bring this idea into reality is completely another ballgame. They therefore strategically gather all the necessary resources , tools, knowledge and support — in advance — that they need to bring their BIG ideas into the physical world.

Create Artificial Problems

Thinking big requires great problem-solving. Without problems, there could never be a BIG thought or idea. Ideas are ideas because they help to solve problems that we experience on a daily basis. Without problems ideas are nothing, and progress will be very hard to come by. People who think big clearly understand this principle, and for that reason, they create artificial problems for themselves on a daily basis. They do this for two reasons:

• To strengthen their problem-solving ability.
• To stretch their imaginations.

Keep in mind that artificial problems can at times lead to unexpected and very practical solutions for other seemingly unrelated aspects of life.

Build Systems and Processes

Thinking big isn’t easy, and that is why it’s important to streamline the process as much as possible by building effective systems that will enable you to build your ideas, accelerate decision making and support your creativity.

Constantly Make Bold BIG Decisions

Big thinkers take BIG risks and make bold and BIG decisions on a daily basis that others may not openly support. However, big thinkers understand that their ability to think big allows them to see things from a far wider perspective that others cannot. And for that reason, they are also independent thinkers who don’t base their decisions on people who only think in small and minuscule ways.

Take Calculated Risks

Those who think big are not unrealistic thinkers who take crazy risks . Big thinkers are smart thinkers who make sure to weigh up the consequences of their decisions thoroughly before taking action.

Take Proactive Action

Those who cultivate the habit of thinking big but do not act are only dreamers. To think big you must act big and move towards your goals and objectives in a thought-provoking meticulous way each and every single day with consistency .

Set Goals Beyond Your Comfort Zone

Thinking big and setting goals that are beyond your comfort zone go hand-in-hand. In fact, the size and the degree of difficulty of obtaining your goal will provide you with a good indication of how BIG you are thinking at any particular moment. However, we must, of course, keep in mind that setting goals that are too far beyond our reach are actually counterproductive. If these goals are not attained, then it could lead to stress, worry, fear, procrastination and a plethora of other limiting emotions and behaviors.

Your goals must be believable, achievable and must effectively follow the SMART FOR ME goal setting method.

Set Challenging Time-frames for Objectives

Some goals might seem easy to achieve on the surface. However, if you fiddle around with the time-frame a little bit, you will find that even the easiest of goals can become somewhat challenging.

Those who think big clearly understand that in order to keep themselves on target, motivated and moving quickly, that they must continuously test themselves and their ideas. And this involves setting challenging time-frames that test their limits and stretch their comfort zones.  

Focus on Planning and Starting Small

Within the introduction of this post, we talked about the snowflake and the seed. Both started small, and yet both had BIG ideas that took a little time to cultivate and grow. The same applies to real life. We must think big but focus on planning and starting small.

Focus on ONLY What Want

Those who think big are solution oriented thinkers who only focus on what they want to do, have, be and achieve. They don’t care about the details at first, or on what cannot be done. Instead, they focus on the big picture and on the possibilities of bringing an idea to fruition. Later, however, they ask effective questions that break down their idea into workable parts — making them practical in real-life scenarios.

Focus on Highest Value Activities

Big thinkers always attempt to maximize the use of their time. As a result, they primarily focus on only the highest value activities that will help them to bring their BIG ideas into reality.

Focus on Your Abilities and Strengths

When conceptualizing BIG ideas, big thinkers take into account their personal strengths and abilities. They realize that by conceptualizing ideas that naturally support their strong attributes and talents, that they will be able to bring forth more motivation and dedication to bring their ideas to fruition.

Consistently Reframe Problems

Those who cultivate the habit of thinking big consistently reframe their problems  by expanding possibilities and perspectives. In other words, they first see the problem for what it is, then they twist their perspective of the problem in a creative way to help them brainstorm better ideas and solutions.

Consistently Surround Self with Ambitious People

Finally, big thinkers associate with other big thinkers who are ambitious, motivated and inspire others to think BIGGER, act BIGGER and become BIGGER than they ever imagined was possible.

Concluding Thoughts

It is reasonable to expect that big thinkers don’t always realize their BIG Ideas. However, what they do realize is that life doesn’t always get them what they want, but rather what they need — in the long-term — to help support the achievement of their BIGGEST goals and objectives. Likewise, they understand that thinking big is not something that just happens to us, nor is it an attitude about life. It’s rather a state-of-mind that we must choose to cultivate on a daily basis that becomes our life’s attitude over a lifetime.

Time to Assimilate these Concepts

GET THIS MAP

Did you gain value from this article? Is it important that you know and understand this topic?   Would you like to optimize how you think about this topic? Would you like a method for applying these ideas to your life?

If you answered yes to any of these questions, then I’m confident you will gain tremendous value from using the accompanying IQ Matrix for coaching or self-coaching purposes. This mind map provides you with a quick visual overview of the article you just read. The branches, interlinking ideas, and images model how the brain thinks and processes information. It’s kind of like implanting a thought into your brain – an upgrade of sorts that optimizes how you think about these concepts and ideas. 🙂

Recommended IQ Matrix Bundles

If you’re intrigued by the idea of using mind maps for self-improvement then I would like to invite you to become an IQ Matrix Member.

If you’re new to mind mapping or just want to check things out, then register for the Free 12 Month Membership Program . There you will gain access to over 90 mind maps, visual tools, and resources valued at over $500. 

If, on the other hand, you want access to an ever-growing library of 100s of visual tools and resources, then check out our Premium Membership Packages . These packages provide you with the ultimate visual reference library for all your personal development needs.

Gain More Knowledge…

Here are some additional links and resources that will help you learn more about this topic:

• 3 Ways to Help You Think Bigger @ Inc.
• 3 Ways to Think Big and Start Small @ Forbes
• 7 Reasons Why You Need to be a Big Dreamer @ Pick the Brain
• 12 Ways to Think “Big Picture” and Why You Should Bother @ Sitepoint
• How to Think Big @ Uncommon Help
• How to Think Big in Work and in Life @ Forbes
• Teaching Kids to Think Big @ Etsy Blog
• The Power of Thinking Big @ Dumb Little Man
• Think Big… And Then Think Bigger @ Huffington Post
• To Think Bigger and Better, Stop Glorifying Failure @ Entrepreneur
• You Are Probably Not Thinking Big Enough @ Medium

About The Author

Adam Sicinski

Start typing and press enter to search.

• Our Content

Book Summary Think Big , by Grace Lordan

What’s the key to transforming your life?

In Think Big , behavioral science expert Grace Lordan argues that most of us fail to transform our lives because we try to change too much too quickly. Instead, we must set a big goal, acknowledge that achieving it will take a few years, and then take the regular, small steps necessary to achieve it. Moreover, we must understand how to overcome the cognitive biases—the mental shortcuts that all humans take—that hinder us from achieving our goals.

In this guide, we’ll first define what cognitive biases are and how your own (and others’) affect your life. Then, we’ll share Lordan’s advice on changing your life by identifying who you want to become, and how to recognize and work around both your cognitive biases and external obstacles. Along the way, we’ll share other experts’ tips on working around your cognitive biases so you can transform your life.

Grace Lordan

1-Page Summary 1-Page Book Summary of Think Big

In Think Big , behavioral science expert Grace Lordan argues that most of us fail to transform our lives because we try to change too much too quickly. Instead, we must set a big goal, acknowledge that achieving it will take a few years, and then take the regular, small steps necessary to achieve it. Moreover, we must understand how to overcome the cognitive biases—the mental shortcuts that all humans take—that hinder us from...

Want to learn the rest of Think Big in 21 minutes?

Unlock the full book summary of Think Big by signing up for Shortform .

Shortform summaries help you learn 10x faster by:

• Being 100% comprehensive: you learn the most important points in the book
• Cutting out the fluff: you don't spend your time wondering what the author's point is.
• Interactive exercises: apply the book's ideas to your own life with our educators' guidance.

READ FULL SUMMARY OF THINK BIG

Here's a preview of the rest of Shortform's Think Big summary:

Think Big Summary What Are Cognitive Biases?

To understand the necessity of overcoming cognitive biases, we must first understand what they are. Lordan explains that, despite popular opinion, humans are not rational beings. Rather, we’re all subject to cognitive biases —systematic errors in thinking that occur when we process and interpret information in a way that differs from objective reality. These biases often lead us to make decisions that aren’t in our best interests long-term. (We’ll discuss how specific biases harm us later on.)

(Shortform note: If cognitive biases lead us to make decisions that aren’t in our best interests long-term, why do we have them? Some experts theorize that cognitive biases helped early humans survive back when they regularly faced imminent dangers. They didn’t need to make the most...

Try Shortform for free

Read full summary of Think Big

Think Big Summary Plan for Who You Want to Be

Now that you understand how your cognitive biases are holding you back, how can you overcome them so you can transform your life? In this section, we’ll describe the first steps you must take: Know who you want to be, then create a plan for becoming that person. We’ll also discuss how to handle the specific biases that may arise as you start your journey. (Shortform note: As Lordan notes, you can use her process for any major goal you want to achieve. However, since she focuses on achieving career-related goals, we’ve done the same.)

Know Who You Want to Be

The first step to changing your life, Lordan argues, is to identify your ideal future self —which Lordan calls your “ME+” and which we’ll call your ideal self. Imagine a typical workday in the life of your ideal self—anywhere between two and 10 years from now. What is their job title and the field in which they work? What kinds of tasks fill up their day? If you’re uncertain about the former, focus on the latter, imagining what work tasks you’d love to do all day. Ideally, these tasks will feel significant—both in your own life and with regard to the impact you have on others—as we tend to try harder to...

What Our Readers Say

This is the best summary of How to Win Friends and Influence People I've ever read. I learned all the main points in just 20 minutes.

Think Big Summary Recognize and Work Around Your Cognitive Biases

Once you have a plan, you must implement it. In this section, we’ll discuss how to recognize and address internal obstacles by getting confident, managing your time well, staying on track, and learning to bounce back.

Get Confident

Lordan suggests that in order to confidently pursue the actions necessary to become your ideal self, you must overcome the personal stories that are hindering your progress . We all have stories that we tell ourselves about who we are—and thanks to confirmation bias , we pay attention to any evidence that confirms these stories and ignore anything that contradicts them. But some of these stories might prevent you from pursuing your goal; for example, you might tell yourself, “I’m too old to change my routine.” Identify these limiting stories by examining the anxieties that arise when you refuse a potentially advantageous situation. Then, identify any actions you might take to disprove this story and create a new one.

For example, you might believe, “I’m a couch potato.” Signing up for an exercise class and regularly going to the gym will prove that you’re not a couch potato and help you develop a new story that you’re someone...

Think Big Summary Recognize and Address External Obstacles

Now, we’ll discuss how to work around external obstacles to achieving your big goals. In this section, we’ll first describe how you can best set up your environment for maximum productivity. Then, we’ll share how to work around others’ cognitive biases, which impact your path to becoming your ideal self. Finally, we’ll discuss how to solicit and respond productively to feedback.

Adjust Your Environment

Lordan suggests that the most important thing you can do to adjust your environment to maximize your productivity is to minimize digital distractions . As we discussed previously, we all do our best work in flow. But if you’re distracted by a digital disruption (like an Instagram notification), you’re knocked out of flow and have to get back into it—which takes up a lot of time. To minimize these disruptions, figure out what distracts you the most when you’re trying to work. Then, eliminate that distraction by only ever accessing it on one gadget and hiding that gadget when you’re working.

(Shortform note: In Hyperfocus , Chris Bailey elaborates on why a digital disruption knocks you out of flow. He explains that...

Why people love using Shortform

"I LOVE Shortform as these are the BEST summaries I’ve ever seen...and I’ve looked at lots of similar sites. The 1-page summary and then the longer, complete version are so useful. I read Shortform nearly every day."

Shortform Exercise: Seek Out Feedback

Create a plan for how to ask for and receive feedback well so that you can incorporate it without letting your cognitive biases get in the way.

What is one issue that you’re currently facing that you’d like to receive feedback on?

Table of Contents

The Magic of Thinking Big

The magic of thinking big can widen the horizon of your life and bring you greater opportunities and greater success.

It is you who sets limits on your thinking. You can break beyond the limits you are putting on yourself by thinking big.

What Is the Magic of Thinking Big

• It means thinking bigger, beyond your immediate circumstances.
• It means aspiring for bigger things.
• A mindset that does not limit itself to mediocre thoughts and outlook.
• It means not being afraid to think differently from the people around you.
• If you think small, you attract small results. If you think bigger, you achieve greater results.

Thoughts have power. If you think bigger, you are putting more power into your thoughts, and if you add positive action, you are most likely to reach far.

It is said that thoughts create the circumstances and situations of one’s life. This means that if you think big, you will achieve bigger success, but if you think small, you will not reach far and high.

If you can think big, you will be able to make big changes in your life and reach greater heights in whatever you do.

Thinking big does not require more effort than thinking small. However, if you think big and you are earnest about it, sooner or later, you will also make greater efforts and strive harder to make greater changes in your life.

Thinking Big Is Like Magic

Most people are afraid to think big. They stick to the same way of thinking and, therefore, continue living the same kind of life.

Our Guide for Manifesting Your Dreams and Goals

Thinking big is like magic. It can transform your thoughts, your beliefs, and your expectations. It gives you courage and daring.

The magic of thinking big can change your life, but only if you back it with action and faith.

Just dreaming, staying passive, and waiting for things to change with no effort on your part is not going to bring success into your life.

Making the magic of thinking big work, requires that you keep your mind open to recognize opportunities, welcome them, and take advantage of them when they appear.

You also need willpower , self-discipline , courage and motivation to follow your thoughts and dreams.

How many people have become successful and wealthy after watching the movie “The secret”, or reading the book?

The movie and book inspired many people, but getting inspired is not enough. Temporary inspiration is not enough.

You need constant inspiration, motivation and faith in yourself.

You need a strong desire to achieve your goals.

How many people you know have a really strong desire and motivation?

You probably have dreams of a better and more successful life. However, if you don’t believe you can achieve this kind of life, you neutralize any positive thoughts you might have.

How to Think Big?

• If you wish to achieve big goals, thinking big needs to be constantly in your mind.
• Always ask yourself how to think big, and then how to think bigger.
• Read books about people who learned how to think big.
• Start thinking about bigger goals, and expect them to come true. Gradually, Situations in your life would improve and change for the better.
• Don’t be afraid beyond your circumstances, beyond your means.
• Dare to dream big.
• Dare to believe that you deserve better life and have your dreams come true.
• Always use the word ‘can’ and avoid the word ‘cannot’.

The Magic of Thinking Big Can Transform Your Life

It takes the same time and the same effort to think big or to think small. So why not think even just a little bigger.

What holds you back? Fear and lack of self-esteem keep you thinking small and not expecting much.

You might feel that you do not deserve to enlarge the scope of your life.

To get over the thoughts and feelings that tie you to where you are, you need to teach your mind to believe that you can succeed.

You need to adopt a positive attitude and take positive action. Start thinking big.

You can achieve more by starting to think big, expecting greater results, and believing you can achieve whatever you set your mind to do. The magic of thinking big can become a part of your life.

The magic of thinking big can become a fact in your life, if you allow yourself to change your habitual way of thinking.

Thinking Big Quotes

“Think little goals and expect little achievements. Think big goals and win big success.” – David. J. Schwartz, Ph.D.

“Look at things not as they are, but as they can be. Visualization adds value to everything. A big thinker always visualizes what can be done in the future. He isn’t stuck with the present” – David J. Schwartz

“Those who believe they can move mountains, do. Those who believe they can’t, cannot.” – David J. Schwartz

“If you think small, your world will be small. If you think big, your world will be big.” – Paulo Coelho

“Shoot for the moon. Even if you miss, you’ll land among the stars.” – Norman Vincent Pearl

“To be successful, you must act big, think big and talk big.” – Aristotle Onassis

“As long as you are going to be thinking anyway, think big.” – Donald Trump

“Whatever the mind of man can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” – Napoleon Hill

Learn How to Use the Magic of Thinking Big To take advantage of the magic of thinking big, learn how to Manifest and Achieve Whatever You Want .

The Guide for Making Your Dreams Come True

About the Author

Join him on a fabulous journey to self-improvement, success, positivity, inner peace, and meditation through his website, articles, and books .

Follow on: Facebook    Twitter    Pinterest    Instagram    Linkedin

Build a Growth Mindset and Discover the Power of True Confidence

Actionable strategies and techniques that are easy to understand and apply in real life.

• Leadership / Personal Development

Thinking Big: Mental Practice To Achieve Success

Published October 8, 2020 · Updated July 25, 2023

Technology has redefined big by opening up possibilities that didn’t seem feasible just a few years ago. It has brought about a thinking revolution that pushes the boundary of human potential. 

Now more than ever, it’s easy to believe that there’s no limit to how far we can think. Visualising the future, not with the limitations of today, but with the possibilities of tomorrow is a great source of mental power. It redirects our energy to find solutions instead of worrying about our problems.  

The ability to think big is the first step to break out of our bubble of self imposed limits, channel our energies to explore a bigger and better future and map out the path ahead to make it possible.  

Thinking big is not daydreaming or imagining a beautiful future, it’s a mental practice that allows us to take active control over our own life. Learning how to think big can shift us from being prisoners of our mind to finding freedom in our thoughts.   

As David J. Schwartz said in The Magic of Thinking Big “The size of your success is determined by the size of your belief”

The old adage “sky’s the limit” inspires the practice to think big. Thinking big does not guarantee success as a good recipe for thinking practice can pull us up while a bad one can push us down. 

How thinking big can be dangerous

Crossing the comfort zone

Thinking big involves crossing the mental boundary of comfort to explore the discomfort. Thinking about these goals may invoke feelings of fear and doubt as we do not see the path yet, but one needs to be careful as this is where things can get a little bit challenging. 

As Michael Hyatt says “There’s a fine line between your discomfort zone and delusional zone. Goals in the discomfort zone challenge. Goals in the delusional zone just discourage.” Knowing when we are practical and when we are unreasonable makes a huge difference in our ability to think big and think right.

Cognitive Distortions Bundle

Challenge and replace irrational thoughts with more realistic and adaptive thoughts.

Stumbling your way up the ladder

Imagine a ladder. Every step on the ladder takes us closer to the top of the ladder. Along the way, we may stumble and come back a few steps or fall completely down. In these moments, simply thinking big won’t get us ahead, we need to think differently. 

A wrong thinking practice can lead to wishful thinking – repeating the same steps up the ladder and hoping it will lead to different outcomes. Being stuck in this mindset and assuming we are thinking big can also prevent us from re-evaluating our strategies, reconsidering our options and even question if it’s the right ladder. 

As Stephen R. Covey said in The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People “If the ladder is not leaning against the right wall, every step we take just gets us to the wrong place faster”. 

Knowing when to push forward and when it’s time to step back and rethink is an important component of thinking big. 

Enthusiasm without the career capital  

Cal Newport advises in So Good They Can’t Ignore You “Great work doesn’t just require great courage, but also skills of great (and real) value”. He calls these rare and valuable skills that enable us to do great work as career capital.  

Thinking big can lure us into giving up what we have with a promise of a better tomorrow without the financial security and right skills to back up our vision. 

It’s important to visualise the path ahead as it sets the direction, but then take small steps in that direction, validate our ideas and refine them further. Jumping right to action with our big ideas may hit us so hard that we may lose the opportunity to see it come to life. 

The right attitude to thinking big requires assessing the career capital to stand apart and then taking steps to acquire it. 

Mind Map Templates

Work through complex problems, identify correlations, and see the big picture using these mind map worksheets.

Thinking big in action

Julie Zhuo says “Working hard is great, but don’t confuse motion for progress. Assuming that working harder is the answer to winning is like assuming thoughts and prayers can solve climate change”

Great ideas do not guarantee success, nor does hard work and perseverance. It’s the path that we choose to implement those ideas, tiny decisions every step of the way, openness to updating our belief system with the courage to change course if required and having checks and balances in place to learn from our systems that can make success possible. 

It’s still not guaranteed as there’s a certain element of luck involved, which is not under our control.  

Thinking big doesn’t end with the visualisation of a better future, it’s rather the beginning of commitment to think right every step of the way. 

Let’s explore how thinking big looks in action:

1. Know your why, what will follow

WHY defines your vision while WHAT lays down the things you do to achieve that vision. 

Simon Sinek says in Start With Why “When we communicate from the outside in, when we communicate WHAT we do first, yes, people can understand vast amounts of complicated information, like facts and features, but it does not drive behavior. But when we communicate from the inside out, we’re talking directly to the part of the brain that controls decision-making, and our language part of the brain allows us to rationalize those decisions”

Knowing your why will not only align others to your direction, but it will also serve as the guiding principle every step of the way.  

When you think big and imagine your future self, don’t start with WHAT, ask WHY – what do I want and why do I want it. 

Once your why is clear – why you do what you do, your what will find its way to be in harmony with your why. 

Starting with why will trigger a motion that will push your visualisation from imagination to the reality of your purpose. 

Amazing Goal Planner

Become your best self by setting and achieving goals in all important areas of your life.

2. Take that first step, it isn’t scary

Thinking big can drive you crazy if you use it to plan every step of the way. Let’s be real. You don’t know the path yet and things can change at a very fast pace. 

You don’t need a plan initially, what you really need is momentum. As Lao Tzu said “The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

That first step is crucial as well as irrelevant. 

It’s crucial to put your thinking into action, to not waste time in creating a perfect plan to get started, to not let your fears push you back and to feel the energy that comes from seeing things in action. 

It’s irrelevant in that it doesn’t matter where and how you start, what matters is how you adopt and incorporate changes along the way. 

Don’t overthink . Define a few steps as you see in the moment, pick the one that aligns best with your strengths and just go and do it. Take this advice from Paul Graham “The way to do really big things seems to be to start with deceptively small things.”

Daily Weekly Monthly Planner Worksheets

Manage your to-do list, stay productive and cultivate healthy life habits with these planners.

3. Be consistent, be deliberate 

Nothing big ever comes to life without being intentional in doing daily work. It’s doing work even when no one is watching, when you don’t feel like it or when your mind tries to trick you into distractions . 

Putting in small effort consistently, making tiny progress everyday may seem insignificant in the moment, but its benefits compound over time. 

Consistency and deliberate practice not only builds the momentum and helps you push forward, it acts as a medium to experiment, try new ideas and carve out a path with the maximum potential. 

As Anders Ericsson advises in Peak “Deliberate practice can open the door to a world of possibilities that you may have been convinced were out of reach. Open that door” 

An effective practice to manage consistency is to do daily planning . At the end of each day, plan 3-4 tasks that you need to accomplish the next day. This simple habit will tune your mind to the work you need to do instead of reacting to everyday events.

Consistency and deliberate practice will keep your thoughts aligned with the future it envisions. 

Implementation Intentions Worksheet

Develop an action plan to avoid distractions, stay on track and achieve your goals with this template.

4. Embrace discomfort, practice experimentation 

Yes, your life may suck initially as results may be disappointing. But if you do not try and experiment with fear of failure, you may never identify the one bet that will drive your idea to success. 

Results improve either because your practice makes them better or you find the key project that pushes your idea forward. 

It’s not possible without embracing discomfort, taking an attitude of a learner, practicing without fear of failure and experimenting with little bets to find the one that will make a difference.

As Cal Newport says in So Good They Can’t Ignore You  –

The important thing about little bets is that they’re bite-sized. You try one. It takes a few months at most. It either succeeds or fails, but either way you get important feedback to guide your next steps. This approach stands in contrast to the idea of choosing a bold plan and making one big bet on its success

Thinking big without experimenting will keep your ideas at a dream level. Jolt them to life by seeing them in action. 

5. Intelligence is not everything, attitude counts 

Intelligence is important, but it’s not everything. What matters more is how you put your knowledge to use, what steps you take to learn new information and how you expand your circle of competence.  

Not having enough intelligence could be an excuse to not think big, stop trying and give up too soon. But, really it’s the attitude that counts more than intelligence. 

David J. Schwartz in The Magic of Thinking Big – 

What really matters is not how much intelligence you have but how you use what you do have. The thinking that guides your intelligence is much more important than the quantity of your brainpower 

You may have all the brains in the world and still do nothing about it. Most successful people around you are not the most brainy people, they are the people who consciously engage in a positive attitude towards life. 

6. Others can pull you down, don’t let them

It’s easy to get caught up in the negativity from people around you – your idea is not that great, it won’t work, why are you wasting your time, go do something else instead. 

I am not suggesting that you hide from the reality of your situation or completely ignore the advice even when there’s some truth to it. Chew over it, put things into perspective, but then decide for yourself. 

Once you have made a decision to move forward, don’t let negative energy from others suck up into your drive to do great work. 

People will continue to bother. Instead of blaming them for what they think, take responsibility to ignore them if that’s what you need to do to move forward. 

Thinking big involves prioritising what matters by removing the obstacles along the way. 

7. Network is power, utilise it 

There’s so much to learn from people within our network. 

Instead of starting from scratch, expand your thinking by reaching out to people and learn how they have done it in the past, what did they do to get past failures, how do they see your vision and what would they advise.

Take it from Charlie Munger, The Complete Investor “I believe in the discipline of mastering the best that other people have ever figured out. I don’t believe in just sitting down and trying to dream it all up yourself. Nobody’s that smart”

People in the network not only inspire, but they can also influence your thinking, guide you along the way and may be, just maybe if your idea connects with them personally, they can be your biggest brand ambassadors helping you spread the word. 

8. Adapt, then correct 

A big part of being successful is the ability to measure progress, get feedback on the process, identify failure points, determine where adjustments in plan need to be made, and rapidly correct errors through adaptation. 

Thinking big needs to spring into action to welcome change as a way of doing things instead of resisting it. Without the mindset to improve as you move along, you may be stuck with doing the same things over and over again and expecting different results. 

Being in the driver’s seat as you learn to drive a car may be exciting, but the traffic on the road can slow you down, some rash drivers may scare the hell out of you and you may even have to change your original route if you wish to reach your destination. 

There will be plenty of reasons to give up driving and many more to keep going. In the end how you utilise the power of thinking big to make your journey more rewarding is up to you.

What do you think? Write to me or share your thoughts in the comments below.

Recommended Reading

Change Your Thinking, Change Your Life By Brian Tracy

The Magic of Thinking Big By David J. Schwartz

Vinita Bansal

My mission is to help people succeed at work. Say hi to me on Twitter @techtello or LinkedIn @sagivini

How To Start A Conversation: Get Beyond Small Talk To Forming Meaningful Connections At Work

How To Stay Focussed And Manage Distractions

You may also like...

6 Micro Habits of Highly Effective Managers

March 9, 2023

 by Vinita Bansal · Published March 9, 2023 · Last modified March 17, 2023

Empowering Teams: To High Performance And Excellence

September 3, 2020

 by Vinita Bansal · Published September 3, 2020 · Last modified November 6, 2022

How To Be More Likable At Work

June 8, 2023

 by Vinita Bansal · Published June 8, 2023

8 Responses

• Pingbacks 0

Most powerful excitement

Thank you for a great article on THINKING BIG ! I have prescribed for your newsletter with enthusiasm.

Thomas Tapio OUR CULTURE IS OUR FORCE

Thank you Thomas!

Thank you for this article – it’s exactly what i needed after being advised by a teacher to think big. I started to wonder how I could do that practically. It doesn’t sound easy – like forming most new habits, consistency and commitment is key. But I an excited to take these steps and see a positive change!

I am sure you will go after big things in life and also succeed at them. All the best!

I really appreciate your hard work on helping people leading a successful life. Until next time Have a wonderful weekend

Thanks and all the best!

Thanks a lot for the good topic Because this helped in my defense of get a certificate almighty God bless you!

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

BUILD HIGH AGENCY COURSE

TOP ARTICLES

Fixed Mindset vs Growth Mindset: How To Shift To A Path Of Learning And Growth

How to opt out of the drama triangle and take responsibility, mentorship: key to effective mentor mentee relationship, effectiveness vs efficiency: why successful leaders need both, high context culture vs low context culture: communication design for avoiding uncertainty.

DIGITAL DOWNLOADS

You are using an out-of-date browser. For an optimal browsing experience, we recommend upgrading to the latest version of Internet Explorer , Google Chrome , or Safari .

Planning with purpose

5 ways to think big, any day of the week

By Justin Rosenstein

“How do I make sure I’m thinking about the big picture, when I’m always working on a lot of small things that seem to take up all my time?”

This was a question a product manager once asked me when she felt lost in the weeds, and one you may have asked yourself.

How can you empower yourself to step back and look at the big picture so you can lead your team more effectively ?

Last week,  Fast Company published an article I wrote tackling this very topic; here are some highlights of strategies that have worked for me, and you might consider:

Allocate time to thinking

If you allow yourself to just do what’s next on your to-do list, you’ll never find the time to think about the big picture–there will always be something that feels more urgent. Block off time on your calendar based on when you’re most creative (morning, afternoon, evening).

Once you’ve allocated time to thinking, you’ll likely come upon a stumbling block: it’s hard to sit down and say to yourself, “Okay . . . think!” The best ideas often bubble up through the course of conversation, so it’s valuable to find another person to think with and bounce ideas back and forth.

If you’re in a management position, consider buddying with someone who reports to you: teammates who don’t often get the chance to strategize will be energized by the opportunity to do it with you. Through this exercise, your teammates will get a sense of ownership over the conclusions you come to together, while you’ll gain focus and clarity.

Choose specific goals

Unpacking your big-picture thinking into a handful of specific goals will make it that much more actionable. If you want to redesign your product, break down this ambition into more specific actions that have a finite timeline: For example, I want to write a draft for the product roadmap  over the next two years, broken up into a hierarchy of themes.

Big questions are worth asking but they should be framed in a way that doesn’t feel burdensome or insurmountable. If they do, decompose them into smaller pieces until each one feels doable.

Identify first steps

Creating tasks in Asana with Due Dates and Assignees is how vision becomes action.

If I have a big goal, I will generally procrastinate on tackling it unless I immediately choose the first steps. If I want to create a new product roadmap, my first steps may include finding all the various Google Docs and Asana projects where we’ve done roadmapping in the past. Next, I will read them. Next, I’ll make a list of potential features, then group those features into themes. Then, I’ll ensure there’s a specific deliverable and audience for the proposals.

Having a time and a place when you know you’ll need to present your ideas (such as at a big meeting) to an audience is a good way to force you to structure your approach.

Ground yourself in reality

What are the big opportunities you’re actually able to tackle? Thinking big occupies a divergent brainstorming space–an alternate reality where there are no wrong answers. The last and most important part of this exercise is to move from the divergent space to one that is solidly based in reality. Be realistic about what options are actionable, and then take next steps. This is the convergent phase.

Encourage teammates to submit ideas onto a single project. Then, have everyone like their favorites. Sort ideas by number of Hearts.

When followed up with action, regularly scheduled divergent big-picture thinking can bring new, better ideas to light, and give you confidence that the small tasks you’re doing all day are steps along the right path.

For starter ideas on how to think big on any project, check out the article in Fast Company .

Visit  the Guide  to get suggestions for using Asana to generate ideas, brainstorm, and turn those ideas into action.

More Issues

Special Edition

How technology can be a lever for achieving your company mission

By Zöe Desroches

In this interview, Dr. Andrey Ostrovksy discusses how technology transformed Concerted Care Group into a thriving, impactful business focused on achieving its mission: ending the opioid epidemic in the United States.

Inclusion starts on day one: 10 ways to build an inclusive onboarding experience

By Sonja Gittens-Ottley

There are many ways to build an inclusive onboarding process, from the company level to the team and individual level. Here are a few ways you can make employees feel like they belong from day one.

How to coach teammates: A key responsibility of effective leaders

By Justin Rosenstein & Carly Schwartz

Coaching is key to helping your team accomplish its goals. Asana co-founder Justin Rosenstein shares advice on effectively coaching teammates in 3 areas: problem solving, goal setting, and performance improvement.

Save £500 when you enrol by 30th September! T&C’s apply

• How to Write Dazzlingly Brilliant Essays: Sharp Advice for Ambitious Students

Rachel McCombie, a graduate of St John’s College, Oxford, shares actionable tips on taking your essays from “Good” to “Outstanding.”

For ambitious students, essays are a chance to showcase academic flair, demonstrate original thinking and impress with advanced written English skills.

The best students relish the challenge of writing essays because they’re a chance to exercise academic research skills and construct interesting arguments. Essays allow you to demonstrate your knowledge, understanding and intelligence in a creative and relatively unrestricted way – provided you keep within the word count! But when lots of other people are answering the same essay question as you, how do you make yours stand out from the crowd? In this article, we’re going to show you the secret of writing a truly brilliant essay.

What are essays actually for?

Before we get into the nitty gritty of how to write an outstanding essay, we need to go right back to basics and think about what essays are actually designed to test. Only by understanding the purpose of an essay can you really begin to understand what it is that tutors are looking for when they read your work. No matter what the academic level of the student is, essays are designed to test many things: – Knowledge – fundamentally, essays test and help consolidate what you’ve read and learned, making them an important part of the learning process, particularly for humanities subjects. –  Comprehension – they test your ability to make sense of and clearly explain complex concepts and issues. – They test your ability to understand the question and produce a considered response to it. – They evaluate your ability to absorb and condense information from a variety of sources , which will probably mean covering a lot of material in a short space of time; this necessitates appraisal of which bits of material are relevant and which are not. – They test your ability to write a balanced and coherent argument that considers a number of points of view. – They showcase your level of written English skills. – They even put your time management to the test – essays are a part of your workload that must be planned, prioritised and delivered to a high standard, to deadline.

Characteristics of the perfect essay

Now that we know why we’re asked to write essays, what are the characteristics that define the essays that impress? The tutors marking your essays may have their own preferences and things they look for in outstanding essays, but let’s take a look at a few of the irrefutable traits of the best.

Original thinking

The hallmark of the truly brilliant essay is original thinking. That doesn’t have to mean coming up with an entirely new theory; most of, if not all, the topics you’ll be studying at GCSE , A-level or even undergraduate level have been thought about in so much depth and by so many people that virtually every possible angle will have been thought of already. But what it does mean is that the essay stands out from those of other students in that it goes beyond the obvious and takes an original approach – perhaps approaching the topic from a different angle, coming up with a different hypothesis from what you’ve been discussing in class, or introducing new evidence and intelligent insights from material not included on the reading list.

Solid, in-depth knowledge and understanding

It goes without saying that the brilliant essay should demonstrate a strong knowledge of the facts, and not just knowledge but sound comprehension of the concepts or issues being discussed and why they matter. The perfect essay demonstrates an ability to deploy relevant facts and use them to form the basis of an argument or hypothesis. It covers a wide range of material and considers every point of view, confidently making use of and quoting from a variety of sources.

Clear structure with intelligent debate

The perfect essay provides a coherent discussion of both sides of the story, developing a balanced argument throughout, and with a conclusion that weighs up the evidence you’ve covered and perhaps provides your own intelligent opinion on how the topic should be interpreted based on the evidence covered.

No superfluous information

Everything written in the perfect essay serves a purpose – to inform and persuade. There’s no rambling or going off at tangents – it sticks to the point and doesn’t waste the reader’s time. This goes back to our earlier point about sorting the relevant facts from the irrelevant material; including material that isn’t relevant shows that you’ve not quite grasped the real heart of the matter.

Exceptional English

The words in the perfect essay flow effortlessly, and the reader feels in safe hands. Sentences need never be read more than once to be understood, and each follows logically on from the next, with no random jumping about from topic to topic from one paragraph to the next. Spelling and grammar are flawless, with no careless typos. So how do you go about writing this mythical Perfect Essay? Read on to find out!

Put in extra background work

Committed students always read beyond what the reading list tells them to read. Guaranteed to impress, wide reading gives you deeper knowledge than your peers and gives you the extra knowledge and insights you need to make your essay stand out. If you’re studying English, for example, don’t just read the set text! Here are some ideas to widen your reading and give you a good range of impressive quotes to include in your essay: – Other works by the same author – how do they compare with your set text? – Works by contemporary authors – does your set text fit into a wider movement, or is it very different from what was being written at the time? – Works by the author’s predecessors – what works inspired the author of your set text? How do you see them shining through in the text you’re studying, and how have they been developed? – Literary criticism – gauge the range of opinions about your set text by reading what the literary critics have to say. Whose opinion do you most agree with, and why? – Background history – so that you can appreciate and refer to the context in which the author was writing (we’ll come back to this last point a little later). It sounds like a lot of extra work, but you don’t necessarily have to read everything in full. It’s fine to dip into these other resources providing you don’t inadvertently take points out of context.

Know what you want to say before you start writing

You’re probably sick of hearing this particular piece of advice, but it’s important to start out with a clear idea in your mind of what you want to say in your essay and how you will structure your arguments. The easiest way to do this is to write an essay plan. This needn’t be a big deal, or time-consuming; all you need to do is to open a new document on your computer, type out the ideas you want to cover and drag and drop them into a logical order. From there, you simply start typing your essay directly into the plan itself. Your essay should include an introduction, a series of paragraphs that develop an argument rather than just jumping from topic to topic, and a conclusion that weighs up the evidence.

Answer the question you’ve been set, not the question you want to answer

A common problem with students’ responses to essays is that rather than answering the question they’ve been set , they try to mould the question to what they’d prefer to write about, because that’s what they feel most comfortable with. Be very careful not to do this! You could end up writing a brilliant essay, but if didn’t actually answer the question then it’s not going to be well received by the person marking it.

Give a balanced argument…

Good essays give both sides of an argument, presenting information impartially and considering multiple points of view. One-sided arguments won’t impress, as you need to show that you’ve thought about the evidence comprehensively.

…but your opinion and interpretation matter too

Show that you’ve made your own mind up based on your weighing up of the evidence. This shows that you’re not just hiding behind what other people say about the topic, but that you’ve had the independence of mind to form your own intelligent opinion about it.

Quote liberally

Use quotations from academic works and sources to back up points you want to make. Doing so strengthens your argument by providing evidence for your statements, as well as demonstrating that you’ve read widely around your subject. However, don’t go too far and write an essay that’s essentially just a list of what other people say about the subject. Quoting too much suggests that you don’t have the confidence or knowledge to explain things in your own words, so have to hide behind those of other people. Make your own mind up about what you’re writing about – as already mentioned, it’s fine to state your own opinion if you’ve considered the arguments and presented the evidence.

Context matters

As we’ve already touched on, if you can demonstrate knowledge of the context of the subject you’re writing about, this will show that you’ve considered possible historical influences that may have shaped a work or issue. This shows that you haven’t simply taken the essay question at face value and demonstrates your ability to think beyond the obvious. An ability to look at the wider picture marks you out as an exceptional student, as many people can’t see the wood for the trees and have a very narrow focus when it comes to writing essays. If you’re an English student, for instance, an author’s work should be considered not in isolation but in the context of the historical events and thinking that helped define the period in which the author was writing. You can’t write about Blake’s poetry without some knowledge and discussion of background events such as the Industrial Revolution, and the development of the Romantic movement as a whole.

Include images and diagrams

You know what they say – a picture speaks a thousand words. What matters in an essay is effective and persuasive communication, and if a picture or diagram will help support a point you’re making, include it. As well as helping to communicate, visuals also make your essay more enjoyable to read for the person marking it – and if they enjoy reading it, the chances are you’ll get better marks! Don’t forget to ensure that you include credits for any images and diagrams you include.

Use full academic citations and a bibliography

Show you mean business by including a full set of academic citations, with a bibliography at the end, even if you haven’t been told to. The great thing about this is that it not only makes you look organised and scholarly, but it also gives you the opportunity to show off just how many extra texts you’ve studied to produce your masterpiece of an essay! Make use of the footnote feature in your word processor and include citations at the bottom of each page, with a main bibliography at the end of the essay. There are different accepted forms for citing an academic reference, but the main thing to remember is to pick one format and be consistent. Typically the citation will include the title and author of the work, the date of publication and the page number(s) of the point or quotation you’re referring to. Here’s an example: 1. Curta, F. (2007) – “Some remarks on ethnicity in medieval archaeology” in Early Medieval Europe 15 (2), pp. 159-185

Before you ask, no, a spell check isn’t good enough! How many times have you typed “form” instead of “from”? That’s just one of a huge number of errors that spell check would simply miss. Your English should be impeccable if you want to be taken seriously, and that means clear and intelligent sentence structures, no misplaced apostrophes, no typos and no grammar crimes. Include your name at the top of each page of your essay, and number the pages. Also, make sure you use a font that’s easy to read, such as Times New Roman or Arial. The person marking your essay won’t appreciate having to struggle through reading a fancy Gothic font, even if it does happen to match the Gothic literature you’re studying!

Meet the deadline

You don’t need us to tell you that, but for the sake of being comprehensive, we’re including it anyway. You could write the best essay ever, but if you deliver it late, it won’t be looked upon favourably! Don’t leave writing your essay until the last minute – start writing with plenty of time to spare, and ideally leave time to sleep on it before you submit it. Allowing time for it to sink in may result in you having a sudden brilliant revelation that you want to include. So there we have it – everything you need to know in order to write an essay to impress. If you want to get ahead, you might also want to think about attending an English summer school .

Image credits: banner

Choose Your Test

• Search Blogs By Category
• College Admissions
• AP and IB Exams
• GPA and Coursework

177 College Essay Examples for 11 Schools + Expert Analysis

College Admissions , College Essays

The personal statement might just be the hardest part of your college application. Mostly this is because it has the least guidance and is the most open-ended. One way to understand what colleges are looking for when they ask you to write an essay is to check out the essays of students who already got in—college essays that actually worked. After all, they must be among the most successful of this weird literary genre.

In this article, I'll go through general guidelines for what makes great college essays great. I've also compiled an enormous list of 100+ actual sample college essays from 11 different schools. Finally, I'll break down two of these published college essay examples and explain why and how they work. With links to 177 full essays and essay excerpts , this article is a great resource for learning how to craft your own personal college admissions essay!

What Excellent College Essays Have in Common

Even though in many ways these sample college essays are very different from one other, they do share some traits you should try to emulate as you write your own essay.

Visible Signs of Planning

Building out from a narrow, concrete focus. You'll see a similar structure in many of the essays. The author starts with a very detailed story of an event or description of a person or place. After this sense-heavy imagery, the essay expands out to make a broader point about the author, and connects this very memorable experience to the author's present situation, state of mind, newfound understanding, or maturity level.

Knowing how to tell a story. Some of the experiences in these essays are one-of-a-kind. But most deal with the stuff of everyday life. What sets them apart is the way the author approaches the topic: analyzing it for drama and humor, for its moving qualities, for what it says about the author's world, and for how it connects to the author's emotional life.

Stellar Execution

A killer first sentence. You've heard it before, and you'll hear it again: you have to suck the reader in, and the best place to do that is the first sentence. Great first sentences are punchy. They are like cliffhangers, setting up an exciting scene or an unusual situation with an unclear conclusion, in order to make the reader want to know more. Don't take my word for it—check out these 22 first sentences from Stanford applicants and tell me you don't want to read the rest of those essays to find out what happens!

A lively, individual voice. Writing is for readers. In this case, your reader is an admissions officer who has read thousands of essays before yours and will read thousands after. Your goal? Don't bore your reader. Use interesting descriptions, stay away from clichés, include your own offbeat observations—anything that makes this essay sounds like you and not like anyone else.

Technical correctness. No spelling mistakes, no grammar weirdness, no syntax issues, no punctuation snafus—each of these sample college essays has been formatted and proofread perfectly. If this kind of exactness is not your strong suit, you're in luck! All colleges advise applicants to have their essays looked over several times by parents, teachers, mentors, and anyone else who can spot a comma splice. Your essay must be your own work, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with getting help polishing it.

And if you need more guidance, connect with PrepScholar's expert admissions consultants . These expert writers know exactly what college admissions committees look for in an admissions essay and chan help you craft an essay that boosts your chances of getting into your dream school.

Check out PrepScholar's Essay Editing and Coaching progra m for more details!

Links to Full College Essay Examples

Some colleges publish a selection of their favorite accepted college essays that worked, and I've put together a selection of over 100 of these.

Common App Essay Samples

Please note that some of these college essay examples may be responding to prompts that are no longer in use. The current Common App prompts are as follows:

1. Some students have a background, identity, interest, or talent that is so meaningful they believe their application would be incomplete without it. If this sounds like you, then please share your story. 2. The lessons we take from obstacles we encounter can be fundamental to later success. Recount a time when you faced a challenge, setback, or failure. How did it affect you, and what did you learn from the experience? 3. Reflect on a time when you questioned or challenged a belief or idea. What prompted your thinking? What was the outcome? 4. Reflect on something that someone has done for you that has made you happy or thankful in a surprising way. How has this gratitude affected or motivated you? 5. Discuss an accomplishment, event, or realization that sparked a period of personal growth and a new understanding of yourself or others. 6. Describe a topic, idea, or concept you find so engaging that it makes you lose all track of time. Why does it captivate you? What or who do you turn to when you want to learn more?

7. Share an essay on any topic of your choice. It can be one you've already written, one that responds to a different prompt, or one of your own design.

Now, let's get to the good stuff: the list of 177 college essay examples responding to current and past Common App essay prompts. 

Connecticut college.

• 12 Common Application essays from the classes of 2022-2025

Hamilton College

• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2026
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2022
• 7 Common Application essays from the class of 2018
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2012
• 8 Common Application essays from the class of 2007

Johns Hopkins

These essays are answers to past prompts from either the Common Application or the Coalition Application (which Johns Hopkins used to accept).

• 1 Common Application or Coalition Application essay from the class of 2026
• 6 Common Application or Coalition Application essays from the class of 2025
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2024
• 6 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2023
• 7 Common Application of Universal Application essays from the class of 2022
• 5 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2021
• 7 Common Application or Universal Application essays from the class of 2020

Essay Examples Published by Other Websites

• 2 Common Application essays ( 1st essay , 2nd essay ) from applicants admitted to Columbia

Other Sample College Essays

Here is a collection of essays that are college-specific.

Babson College

• 4 essays (and 1 video response) on "Why Babson" from the class of 2020

Emory University

• 5 essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) from the class of 2020 along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on why the essays were exceptional
• 5 more recent essay examples ( 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 ) along with analysis from Emory admissions staff on what made these essays stand out

University of Georgia

• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2019
• 1 “strong essay” sample from 2018
• 10 Harvard essays from 2023
• 10 Harvard essays from 2022
• 10 Harvard essays from 2021
• 10 Harvard essays from 2020
• 10 Harvard essays from 2019
• 10 Harvard essays from 2018
• 6 essays from admitted MIT students

Smith College

• 6 "best gift" essays from the class of 2018

Books of College Essays

If you're looking for even more sample college essays, consider purchasing a college essay book. The best of these include dozens of essays that worked and feedback from real admissions officers.

College Essays That Made a Difference —This detailed guide from Princeton Review includes not only successful essays, but also interviews with admissions officers and full student profiles.

50 Successful Harvard Application Essays by the Staff of the Harvard Crimson—A must for anyone aspiring to Harvard .

50 Successful Ivy League Application Essays and 50 Successful Stanford Application Essays by Gen and Kelly Tanabe—For essays from other top schools, check out this venerated series, which is regularly updated with new essays.

Heavenly Essays by Janine W. Robinson—This collection from the popular blogger behind Essay Hell includes a wider range of schools, as well as helpful tips on honing your own essay.

Analyzing Great Common App Essays That Worked

I've picked two essays from the examples collected above to examine in more depth so that you can see exactly what makes a successful college essay work. Full credit for these essays goes to the original authors and the schools that published them.

Example 1: "Breaking Into Cars," by Stephen, Johns Hopkins Class of '19 (Common App Essay, 636 words long)

I had never broken into a car before.

We were in Laredo, having just finished our first day at a Habitat for Humanity work site. The Hotchkiss volunteers had already left, off to enjoy some Texas BBQ, leaving me behind with the college kids to clean up. Not until we were stranded did we realize we were locked out of the van.

Someone picked a coat hanger out of the dumpster, handed it to me, and took a few steps back.

"Can you do that thing with a coat hanger to unlock it?"

"Why me?" I thought.

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame. Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally. My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed. "The water's on fire! Clear a hole!" he shouted, tossing me in the lake without warning. While I'm still unconvinced about that particular lesson's practicality, my Dad's overarching message is unequivocally true: much of life is unexpected, and you have to deal with the twists and turns.

Living in my family, days rarely unfolded as planned. A bit overlooked, a little pushed around, I learned to roll with reality, negotiate a quick deal, and give the improbable a try. I don't sweat the small stuff, and I definitely don't expect perfect fairness. So what if our dining room table only has six chairs for seven people? Someone learns the importance of punctuality every night.

But more than punctuality and a special affinity for musical chairs, my family life has taught me to thrive in situations over which I have no power. Growing up, I never controlled my older siblings, but I learned how to thwart their attempts to control me. I forged alliances, and realigned them as necessary. Sometimes, I was the poor, defenseless little brother; sometimes I was the omniscient elder. Different things to different people, as the situation demanded. I learned to adapt.

Back then, these techniques were merely reactions undertaken to ensure my survival. But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The question caught me off guard, much like the question posed to me in Laredo. Then, I realized I knew the answer. I knew why the coat hanger had been handed to me.

Growing up as the middle child in my family, I was a vital participant in a thing I did not govern, in the company of people I did not choose. It's family. It's society. And often, it's chaos. You participate by letting go of the small stuff, not expecting order and perfection, and facing the unexpected with confidence, optimism, and preparedness. My family experience taught me to face a serendipitous world with confidence.

What Makes This Essay Tick?

It's very helpful to take writing apart in order to see just how it accomplishes its objectives. Stephen's essay is very effective. Let's find out why!

An Opening Line That Draws You In

In just eight words, we get: scene-setting (he is standing next to a car about to break in), the idea of crossing a boundary (he is maybe about to do an illegal thing for the first time), and a cliffhanger (we are thinking: is he going to get caught? Is he headed for a life of crime? Is he about to be scared straight?).

Great, Detailed Opening Story

More out of amusement than optimism, I gave it a try. I slid the hanger into the window's seal like I'd seen on crime shows, and spent a few minutes jiggling the apparatus around the inside of the frame.

It's the details that really make this small experience come alive. Notice how whenever he can, Stephen uses a more specific, descriptive word in place of a more generic one. The volunteers aren't going to get food or dinner; they're going for "Texas BBQ." The coat hanger comes from "a dumpster." Stephen doesn't just move the coat hanger—he "jiggles" it.

Details also help us visualize the emotions of the people in the scene. The person who hands Stephen the coat hanger isn't just uncomfortable or nervous; he "takes a few steps back"—a description of movement that conveys feelings. Finally, the detail of actual speech makes the scene pop. Instead of writing that the other guy asked him to unlock the van, Stephen has the guy actually say his own words in a way that sounds like a teenager talking.

Turning a Specific Incident Into a Deeper Insight

Suddenly, two things simultaneously clicked. One was the lock on the door. (I actually succeeded in springing it.) The other was the realization that I'd been in this type of situation before. In fact, I'd been born into this type of situation.

Stephen makes the locked car experience a meaningful illustration of how he has learned to be resourceful and ready for anything, and he also makes this turn from the specific to the broad through an elegant play on the two meanings of the word "click."

Using Concrete Examples When Making Abstract Claims

My upbringing has numbed me to unpredictability and chaos. With a family of seven, my home was loud, messy, and spottily supervised. My siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing—all meant my house was functioning normally.

"Unpredictability and chaos" are very abstract, not easily visualized concepts. They could also mean any number of things—violence, abandonment, poverty, mental instability. By instantly following up with highly finite and unambiguous illustrations like "family of seven" and "siblings arguing, the dog barking, the phone ringing," Stephen grounds the abstraction in something that is easy to picture: a large, noisy family.

Using Small Bits of Humor and Casual Word Choice

My Dad, a retired Navy pilot, was away half the time. When he was home, he had a parenting style something like a drill sergeant. At the age of nine, I learned how to clear burning oil from the surface of water. My Dad considered this a critical life skill—you know, in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed.

Obviously, knowing how to clean burning oil is not high on the list of things every 9-year-old needs to know. To emphasize this, Stephen uses sarcasm by bringing up a situation that is clearly over-the-top: "in case my aircraft carrier should ever get torpedoed."

The humor also feels relaxed. Part of this is because he introduces it with the colloquial phrase "you know," so it sounds like he is talking to us in person. This approach also diffuses the potential discomfort of the reader with his father's strictness—since he is making jokes about it, clearly he is OK. Notice, though, that this doesn't occur very much in the essay. This helps keep the tone meaningful and serious rather than flippant.

An Ending That Stretches the Insight Into the Future

But one day this fall, Dr. Hicks, our Head of School, asked me a question that he hoped all seniors would reflect on throughout the year: "How can I participate in a thing I do not govern, in the company of people I did not choose?"

The ending of the essay reveals that Stephen's life has been one long preparation for the future. He has emerged from chaos and his dad's approach to parenting as a person who can thrive in a world that he can't control.

This connection of past experience to current maturity and self-knowledge is a key element in all successful personal essays. Colleges are very much looking for mature, self-aware applicants. These are the qualities of successful college students, who will be able to navigate the independence college classes require and the responsibility and quasi-adulthood of college life.

What Could This Essay Do Even Better?

Even the best essays aren't perfect, and even the world's greatest writers will tell you that writing is never "finished"—just "due." So what would we tweak in this essay if we could?

Replace some of the clichéd language. Stephen uses handy phrases like "twists and turns" and "don't sweat the small stuff" as a kind of shorthand for explaining his relationship to chaos and unpredictability. But using too many of these ready-made expressions runs the risk of clouding out your own voice and replacing it with something expected and boring.

Use another example from recent life. Stephen's first example (breaking into the van in Laredo) is a great illustration of being resourceful in an unexpected situation. But his essay also emphasizes that he "learned to adapt" by being "different things to different people." It would be great to see how this plays out outside his family, either in the situation in Laredo or another context.

Example 2: By Renner Kwittken, Tufts Class of '23 (Common App Essay, 645 words long)

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver. I saw it in my favorite book, Richard Scarry's "Cars and Trucks and Things That Go," and for some reason, I was absolutely obsessed with the idea of driving a giant pickle. Much to the discontent of my younger sister, I insisted that my parents read us that book as many nights as possible so we could find goldbug, a small little golden bug, on every page. I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Then I discovered a real goldbug: gold nanoparticles that can reprogram macrophages to assist in killing tumors, produce clear images of them without sacrificing the subject, and heat them to obliteration.

Suddenly the destination of my pickle was clear.

I quickly became enveloped by the world of nanomedicine; I scoured articles about liposomes, polymeric micelles, dendrimers, targeting ligands, and self-assembling nanoparticles, all conquering cancer in some exotic way. Completely absorbed, I set out to find a mentor to dive even deeper into these topics. After several rejections, I was immensely grateful to receive an invitation to work alongside Dr. Sangeeta Ray at Johns Hopkins.

In the lab, Dr. Ray encouraged a great amount of autonomy to design and implement my own procedures. I chose to attack a problem that affects the entire field of nanomedicine: nanoparticles consistently fail to translate from animal studies into clinical trials. Jumping off recent literature, I set out to see if a pre-dose of a common chemotherapeutic could enhance nanoparticle delivery in aggressive prostate cancer, creating three novel constructs based on three different linear polymers, each using fluorescent dye (although no gold, sorry goldbug!). Though using radioactive isotopes like Gallium and Yttrium would have been incredible, as a 17-year-old, I unfortunately wasn't allowed in the same room as these radioactive materials (even though I took a Geiger counter to a pair of shoes and found them to be slightly dangerous).

I hadn't expected my hypothesis to work, as the research project would have ideally been led across two full years. Yet while there are still many optimizations and revisions to be done, I was thrilled to find -- with completely new nanoparticles that may one day mean future trials will use particles with the initials "RK-1" -- thatcyclophosphamide did indeed increase nanoparticle delivery to the tumor in a statistically significant way.

A secondary, unexpected research project was living alone in Baltimore, a new city to me, surrounded by people much older than I. Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research. Whether in a presentation or in a casual conversation, making others interested in science is perhaps more exciting to me than the research itself. This solidified a new pursuit to angle my love for writing towards illuminating science in ways people can understand, adding value to a society that can certainly benefit from more scientific literacy.

It seems fitting that my goals are still transforming: in Scarry's book, there is not just one goldbug, there is one on every page. With each new experience, I'm learning that it isn't the goldbug itself, but rather the act of searching for the goldbugs that will encourage, shape, and refine my ever-evolving passions. Regardless of the goldbug I seek -- I know my pickle truck has just begun its journey.

Renner takes a somewhat different approach than Stephen, but their essay is just as detailed and engaging. Let's go through some of the strengths of this essay.

One Clear Governing Metaphor

This essay is ultimately about two things: Renner’s dreams and future career goals, and Renner’s philosophy on goal-setting and achieving one’s dreams.

But instead of listing off all the amazing things they’ve done to pursue their dream of working in nanomedicine, Renner tells a powerful, unique story instead. To set up the narrative, Renner opens the essay by connecting their experiences with goal-setting and dream-chasing all the way back to a memorable childhood experience:

This lighthearted–but relevant!--story about the moment when Renner first developed a passion for a specific career (“finding the goldbug”) provides an anchor point for the rest of the essay. As Renner pivots to describing their current dreams and goals–working in nanomedicine–the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” is reflected in Renner’s experiments, rejections, and new discoveries.

Though Renner tells multiple stories about their quest to “find the goldbug,” or, in other words, pursue their passion, each story is connected by a unifying theme; namely, that as we search and grow over time, our goals will transform…and that’s okay! By the end of the essay, Renner uses the metaphor of “finding the goldbug” to reiterate the relevance of the opening story:

While the earlier parts of the essay convey Renner’s core message by showing, the final, concluding paragraph sums up Renner’s insights by telling. By briefly and clearly stating the relevance of the goldbug metaphor to their own philosophy on goals and dreams, Renner demonstrates their creativity, insight, and eagerness to grow and evolve as the journey continues into college.

An Engaging, Individual Voice

This essay uses many techniques that make Renner sound genuine and make the reader feel like we already know them.

Technique #1: humor. Notice Renner's gentle and relaxed humor that lightly mocks their younger self's grand ambitions (this is different from the more sarcastic kind of humor used by Stephen in the first essay—you could never mistake one writer for the other).

My first dream job was to be a pickle truck driver.

I would imagine the wonderful life I would have: being a pig driving a giant pickle truck across the country, chasing and finding goldbug. I then moved on to wanting to be a Lego Master. Then an architect. Then a surgeon.

Renner gives a great example of how to use humor to your advantage in college essays. You don’t want to come off as too self-deprecating or sarcastic, but telling a lightheartedly humorous story about your younger self that also showcases how you’ve grown and changed over time can set the right tone for your entire essay.

Technique #2: intentional, eye-catching structure. The second technique is the way Renner uses a unique structure to bolster the tone and themes of their essay . The structure of your essay can have a major impact on how your ideas come across…so it’s important to give it just as much thought as the content of your essay!

For instance, Renner does a great job of using one-line paragraphs to create dramatic emphasis and to make clear transitions from one phase of the story to the next:

Suddenly the destination of my pickle car was clear.

Not only does the one-liner above signal that Renner is moving into a new phase of the narrative (their nanoparticle research experiences), it also tells the reader that this is a big moment in Renner’s story. It’s clear that Renner made a major discovery that changed the course of their goal pursuit and dream-chasing. Through structure, Renner conveys excitement and entices the reader to keep pushing forward to the next part of the story.

Technique #3: playing with syntax. The third technique is to use sentences of varying length, syntax, and structure. Most of the essay's written in standard English and uses grammatically correct sentences. However, at key moments, Renner emphasizes that the reader needs to sit up and pay attention by switching to short, colloquial, differently punctuated, and sometimes fragmented sentences.

Even with moving frequently between hotels, AirBnB's, and students' apartments, I strangely reveled in the freedom I had to enjoy my surroundings and form new friendships with graduate school students from the lab. We explored The Inner Harbor at night, attended a concert together one weekend, and even got to watch the Orioles lose (to nobody's surprise). Ironically, it's through these new friendships I discovered something unexpected: what I truly love is sharing research.

In the examples above, Renner switches adeptly between long, flowing sentences and quippy, telegraphic ones. At the same time, Renner uses these different sentence lengths intentionally. As they describe their experiences in new places, they use longer sentences to immerse the reader in the sights, smells, and sounds of those experiences. And when it’s time to get a big, key idea across, Renner switches to a short, punchy sentence to stop the reader in their tracks.

The varying syntax and sentence lengths pull the reader into the narrative and set up crucial “aha” moments when it’s most important…which is a surefire way to make any college essay stand out.

Renner's essay is very strong, but there are still a few little things that could be improved.

Connecting the research experiences to the theme of “finding the goldbug.”  The essay begins and ends with Renner’s connection to the idea of “finding the goldbug.” And while this metaphor is deftly tied into the essay’s intro and conclusion, it isn’t entirely clear what Renner’s big findings were during the research experiences that are described in the middle of the essay. It would be great to add a sentence or two stating what Renner’s big takeaways (or “goldbugs”) were from these experiences, which add more cohesion to the essay as a whole.

Give more details about discovering the world of nanomedicine. It makes sense that Renner wants to get into the details of their big research experiences as quickly as possible. After all, these are the details that show Renner’s dedication to nanomedicine! But a smoother transition from the opening pickle car/goldbug story to Renner’s “real goldbug” of nanoparticles would help the reader understand why nanoparticles became Renner’s goldbug. Finding out why Renner is so motivated to study nanomedicine–and perhaps what put them on to this field of study–would help readers fully understand why Renner chose this path in the first place.

4 Essential Tips for Writing Your Own Essay

How can you use this discussion to better your own college essay? Here are some suggestions for ways to use this resource effectively.

#1: Get Help From the Experts

Getting your college applications together takes a lot of work and can be pretty intimidatin g. Essays are even more important than ever now that admissions processes are changing and schools are going test-optional and removing diversity standards thanks to new Supreme Court rulings .  If you want certified expert help that really makes a difference, get started with  PrepScholar’s Essay Editing and Coaching program. Our program can help you put together an incredible essay from idea to completion so that your application stands out from the crowd. We've helped students get into the best colleges in the United States, including Harvard, Stanford, and Yale.  If you're ready to take the next step and boost your odds of getting into your dream school, connect with our experts today .

#2: Read Other Essays to Get Ideas for Your Own

As you go through the essays we've compiled for you above, ask yourself the following questions:

• Can you explain to yourself (or someone else!) why the opening sentence works well?
• Look for the essay's detailed personal anecdote. What senses is the author describing? Can you easily picture the scene in your mind's eye?
• Find the place where this anecdote bridges into a larger insight about the author. How does the essay connect the two? How does the anecdote work as an example of the author's characteristic, trait, or skill?
• Check out the essay's tone. If it's funny, can you find the places where the humor comes from? If it's sad and moving, can you find the imagery and description of feelings that make you moved? If it's serious, can you see how word choice adds to this tone?

Make a note whenever you find an essay or part of an essay that you think was particularly well-written, and think about what you like about it . Is it funny? Does it help you really get to know the writer? Does it show what makes the writer unique? Once you have your list, keep it next to you while writing your essay to remind yourself to try and use those same techniques in your own essay.

#3: Find Your "A-Ha!" Moment

All of these essays rely on connecting with the reader through a heartfelt, highly descriptive scene from the author's life. It can either be very dramatic (did you survive a plane crash?) or it can be completely mundane (did you finally beat your dad at Scrabble?). Either way, it should be personal and revealing about you, your personality, and the way you are now that you are entering the adult world.

Check out essays by authors like John Jeremiah Sullivan , Leslie Jamison , Hanif Abdurraqib , and Esmé Weijun Wang to get more examples of how to craft a compelling personal narrative.

#4: Start Early, Revise Often

Let me level with you: the best writing isn't writing at all. It's rewriting. And in order to have time to rewrite, you have to start way before the application deadline. My advice is to write your first draft at least two months before your applications are due.

Let it sit for a few days untouched. Then come back to it with fresh eyes and think critically about what you've written. What's extra? What's missing? What is in the wrong place? What doesn't make sense? Don't be afraid to take it apart and rearrange sections. Do this several times over, and your essay will be much better for it!

For more editing tips, check out a style guide like Dreyer's English or Eats, Shoots & Leaves .

What's Next?

Still not sure which colleges you want to apply to? Our experts will show you how to make a college list that will help you choose a college that's right for you.

Interested in learning more about college essays? Check out our detailed breakdown of exactly how personal statements work in an application , some suggestions on what to avoid when writing your essay , and our guide to writing about your extracurricular activities .

Working on the rest of your application? Read what admissions officers wish applicants knew before applying .

The recommendations in this post are based solely on our knowledge and experience. If you purchase an item through one of our links PrepScholar may receive a commission.

Trending Now

How to Get Into Harvard and the Ivy League

How to Get a Perfect 4.0 GPA

How to Write an Amazing College Essay

What Exactly Are Colleges Looking For?

ACT vs. SAT: Which Test Should You Take?

When should you take the SAT or ACT?

Get Your Free

Find Your Target SAT Score

Free Complete Official SAT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect SAT Score, by an Expert Full Scorer

Score 800 on SAT Math

Score 800 on SAT Reading and Writing

How to Improve Your Low SAT Score

Score 600 on SAT Math

Score 600 on SAT Reading and Writing

Find Your Target ACT Score

Complete Official Free ACT Practice Tests

How to Get a Perfect ACT Score, by a 36 Full Scorer

Get a 36 on ACT English

Get a 36 on ACT Math

Get a 36 on ACT Reading

Get a 36 on ACT Science

How to Improve Your Low ACT Score

Get a 24 on ACT English

Get a 24 on ACT Math

Get a 24 on ACT Reading

Get a 24 on ACT Science

Stay Informed

Get the latest articles and test prep tips!

Anna scored in the 99th percentile on her SATs in high school, and went on to major in English at Princeton and to get her doctorate in English Literature at Columbia. She is passionate about improving student access to higher education.

Ask a Question Below

Have any questions about this article or other topics? Ask below and we'll reply!

Revising Drafts

Rewriting is the essence of writing well—where the game is won or lost. —William Zinsser

What this handout is about

This handout will motivate you to revise your drafts and give you strategies to revise effectively.

What does it mean to revise?

Revision literally means to “see again,” to look at something from a fresh, critical perspective. It is an ongoing process of rethinking the paper: reconsidering your arguments, reviewing your evidence, refining your purpose, reorganizing your presentation, reviving stale prose.

But I thought revision was just fixing the commas and spelling

Nope. That’s called proofreading. It’s an important step before turning your paper in, but if your ideas are predictable, your thesis is weak, and your organization is a mess, then proofreading will just be putting a band-aid on a bullet wound. When you finish revising, that’s the time to proofread. For more information on the subject, see our handout on proofreading .

How about if I just reword things: look for better words, avoid repetition, etc.? Is that revision?

Well, that’s a part of revision called editing. It’s another important final step in polishing your work. But if you haven’t thought through your ideas, then rephrasing them won’t make any difference.

Why is revision important?

Writing is a process of discovery, and you don’t always produce your best stuff when you first get started. So revision is a chance for you to look critically at what you have written to see:

• if it’s really worth saying,
• if it says what you wanted to say, and
• if a reader will understand what you’re saying.

The process

What steps should i use when i begin to revise.

Here are several things to do. But don’t try them all at one time. Instead, focus on two or three main areas during each revision session:

• Wait awhile after you’ve finished a draft before looking at it again. The Roman poet Horace thought one should wait nine years, but that’s a bit much. A day—a few hours even—will work. When you do return to the draft, be honest with yourself, and don’t be lazy. Ask yourself what you really think about the paper.
• As The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers puts it, “THINK BIG, don’t tinker” (61). At this stage, you should be concerned with the large issues in the paper, not the commas.
• Check the focus of the paper: Is it appropriate to the assignment? Is the topic too big or too narrow? Do you stay on track through the entire paper?
• Think honestly about your thesis: Do you still agree with it? Should it be modified in light of something you discovered as you wrote the paper? Does it make a sophisticated, provocative point, or does it just say what anyone could say if given the same topic? Does your thesis generalize instead of taking a specific position? Should it be changed altogether? For more information visit our handout on thesis statements .
• Think about your purpose in writing: Does your introduction state clearly what you intend to do? Will your aims be clear to your readers?

What are some other steps I should consider in later stages of the revision process?

• Examine the balance within your paper: Are some parts out of proportion with others? Do you spend too much time on one trivial point and neglect a more important point? Do you give lots of detail early on and then let your points get thinner by the end?
• Check that you have kept your promises to your readers: Does your paper follow through on what the thesis promises? Do you support all the claims in your thesis? Are the tone and formality of the language appropriate for your audience?
• Check the organization: Does your paper follow a pattern that makes sense? Do the transitions move your readers smoothly from one point to the next? Do the topic sentences of each paragraph appropriately introduce what that paragraph is about? Would your paper work better if you moved some things around? For more information visit our handout on reorganizing drafts.
• Check your information: Are all your facts accurate? Are any of your statements misleading? Have you provided enough detail to satisfy readers’ curiosity? Have you cited all your information appropriately?
• Check your conclusion: Does the last paragraph tie the paper together smoothly and end on a stimulating note, or does the paper just die a slow, redundant, lame, or abrupt death?

Whoa! I thought I could just revise in a few minutes

Sorry. You may want to start working on your next paper early so that you have plenty of time for revising. That way you can give yourself some time to come back to look at what you’ve written with a fresh pair of eyes. It’s amazing how something that sounded brilliant the moment you wrote it can prove to be less-than-brilliant when you give it a chance to incubate.

But I don’t want to rewrite my whole paper!

Revision doesn’t necessarily mean rewriting the whole paper. Sometimes it means revising the thesis to match what you’ve discovered while writing. Sometimes it means coming up with stronger arguments to defend your position, or coming up with more vivid examples to illustrate your points. Sometimes it means shifting the order of your paper to help the reader follow your argument, or to change the emphasis of your points. Sometimes it means adding or deleting material for balance or emphasis. And then, sadly, sometimes revision does mean trashing your first draft and starting from scratch. Better that than having the teacher trash your final paper.

But I work so hard on what I write that I can’t afford to throw any of it away

If you want to be a polished writer, then you will eventually find out that you can’t afford NOT to throw stuff away. As writers, we often produce lots of material that needs to be tossed. The idea or metaphor or paragraph that I think is most wonderful and brilliant is often the very thing that confuses my reader or ruins the tone of my piece or interrupts the flow of my argument.Writers must be willing to sacrifice their favorite bits of writing for the good of the piece as a whole. In order to trim things down, though, you first have to have plenty of material on the page. One trick is not to hinder yourself while you are composing the first draft because the more you produce, the more you will have to work with when cutting time comes.

But sometimes I revise as I go

That’s OK. Since writing is a circular process, you don’t do everything in some specific order. Sometimes you write something and then tinker with it before moving on. But be warned: there are two potential problems with revising as you go. One is that if you revise only as you go along, you never get to think of the big picture. The key is still to give yourself enough time to look at the essay as a whole once you’ve finished. Another danger to revising as you go is that you may short-circuit your creativity. If you spend too much time tinkering with what is on the page, you may lose some of what hasn’t yet made it to the page. Here’s a tip: Don’t proofread as you go. You may waste time correcting the commas in a sentence that may end up being cut anyway.

How do I go about the process of revising? Any tips?

• Work from a printed copy; it’s easier on the eyes. Also, problems that seem invisible on the screen somehow tend to show up better on paper.
• Another tip is to read the paper out loud. That’s one way to see how well things flow.
• Remember all those questions listed above? Don’t try to tackle all of them in one draft. Pick a few “agendas” for each draft so that you won’t go mad trying to see, all at once, if you’ve done everything.
• Ask lots of questions and don’t flinch from answering them truthfully. For example, ask if there are opposing viewpoints that you haven’t considered yet.

Whenever I revise, I just make things worse. I do my best work without revising

That’s a common misconception that sometimes arises from fear, sometimes from laziness. The truth is, though, that except for those rare moments of inspiration or genius when the perfect ideas expressed in the perfect words in the perfect order flow gracefully and effortlessly from the mind, all experienced writers revise their work. I wrote six drafts of this handout. Hemingway rewrote the last page of A Farewell to Arms thirty-nine times. If you’re still not convinced, re-read some of your old papers. How do they sound now? What would you revise if you had a chance?

What can get in the way of good revision strategies?

Don’t fall in love with what you have written. If you do, you will be hesitant to change it even if you know it’s not great. Start out with a working thesis, and don’t act like you’re married to it. Instead, act like you’re dating it, seeing if you’re compatible, finding out what it’s like from day to day. If a better thesis comes along, let go of the old one. Also, don’t think of revision as just rewording. It is a chance to look at the entire paper, not just isolated words and sentences.

What happens if I find that I no longer agree with my own point?

If you take revision seriously, sometimes the process will lead you to questions you cannot answer, objections or exceptions to your thesis, cases that don’t fit, loose ends or contradictions that just won’t go away. If this happens (and it will if you think long enough), then you have several choices. You could choose to ignore the loose ends and hope your reader doesn’t notice them, but that’s risky. You could change your thesis completely to fit your new understanding of the issue, or you could adjust your thesis slightly to accommodate the new ideas. Or you could simply acknowledge the contradictions and show why your main point still holds up in spite of them. Most readers know there are no easy answers, so they may be annoyed if you give them a thesis and try to claim that it is always true with no exceptions no matter what.

How do I get really good at revising?

The same way you get really good at golf, piano, or a video game—do it often. Take revision seriously, be disciplined, and set high standards for yourself. Here are three more tips:

• The more you produce, the more you can cut.
• The more you can imagine yourself as a reader looking at this for the first time, the easier it will be to spot potential problems.
• The more you demand of yourself in terms of clarity and elegance, the more clear and elegant your writing will be.

How do I revise at the sentence level?

Read your paper out loud, sentence by sentence, and follow Peter Elbow’s advice: “Look for places where you stumble or get lost in the middle of a sentence. These are obvious awkwardness’s that need fixing. Look for places where you get distracted or even bored—where you cannot concentrate. These are places where you probably lost focus or concentration in your writing. Cut through the extra words or vagueness or digression; get back to the energy. Listen even for the tiniest jerk or stumble in your reading, the tiniest lessening of your energy or focus or concentration as you say the words . . . A sentence should be alive” (Writing with Power 135).

Practical advice for ensuring that your sentences are alive:

• Use forceful verbs—replace long verb phrases with a more specific verb. For example, replace “She argues for the importance of the idea” with “She defends the idea.”
• Look for places where you’ve used the same word or phrase twice or more in consecutive sentences and look for alternative ways to say the same thing OR for ways to combine the two sentences.
• Cut as many prepositional phrases as you can without losing your meaning. For instance, the following sentence, “There are several examples of the issue of integrity in Huck Finn,” would be much better this way, “Huck Finn repeatedly addresses the issue of integrity.”
• Check your sentence variety. If more than two sentences in a row start the same way (with a subject followed by a verb, for example), then try using a different sentence pattern.
• Aim for precision in word choice. Don’t settle for the best word you can think of at the moment—use a thesaurus (along with a dictionary) to search for the word that says exactly what you want to say.
• Look for sentences that start with “It is” or “There are” and see if you can revise them to be more active and engaging.
• For more information, please visit our handouts on word choice and style .

How can technology help?

Need some help revising? Take advantage of the revision and versioning features available in modern word processors.

Track your changes. Most word processors and writing tools include a feature that allows you to keep your changes visible until you’re ready to accept them. Using “Track Changes” mode in Word or “Suggesting” mode in Google Docs, for example, allows you to make changes without committing to them.

Compare drafts. Tools that allow you to compare multiple drafts give you the chance to visually track changes over time. Try “File History” or “Compare Documents” modes in Google Doc, Word, and Scrivener to retrieve old drafts, identify changes you’ve made over time, or help you keep a bigger picture in mind as you revise.

Works consulted

We consulted these works while writing this handout. This is not a comprehensive list of resources on the handout’s topic, and we encourage you to do your own research to find additional publications. Please do not use this list as a model for the format of your own reference list, as it may not match the citation style you are using. For guidance on formatting citations, please see the UNC Libraries citation tutorial . We revise these tips periodically and welcome feedback.

Anson, Chris M., and Robert A. Schwegler. 2010. The Longman Handbook for Writers and Readers , 6th ed. New York: Longman.

Elbow, Peter. 1998. Writing With Power: Techniques for Mastering the Writing Process . New York: Oxford University Press.

Lanham, Richard A. 2006. Revising Prose , 5th ed. New York: Pearson Longman.

Lunsford, Andrea A. 2015. The St. Martin’s Handbook , 8th ed. Boston: Bedford/St Martin’s.

Ruszkiewicz, John J., Christy Friend, Daniel Seward, and Maxine Hairston. 2010. The Scott, Foresman Handbook for Writers , 9th ed. Boston: Pearson Education.

Zinsser, William. 2001. On Writing Well: The Classic Guide to Writing Nonfiction , 6th ed. New York: Quill.

You may reproduce it for non-commercial use if you use the entire handout and attribute the source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Essays About Dreams In Life: 14 Examples And Topic Ideas

Dreams in life are necessary; if you are writing essays about dreams in life, you can read these essay examples and topic ideas to get started.

Everyone has a dream – a big one or even a small one. Even the most successful people had dreams before becoming who they are today. Having a dream is like having a purpose in life; you will start working hard to reach your dream and never lose interest in life.

Without hard work, you can never turn a dream into a reality; it will only remain a desire. Level up your essay writing skills by reading our essays about dreams in life examples and prompts and start writing an inspiring essay today!

Writing About Dreams: A Guide

Essays about dreams in life: example essays, 1. chase your dreams: the best advice i ever got by michelle colon-johnson, 2. my dream, my future by deborah massey, 3. the pursuit of dreams by christine nishiyama, 4. my dreams and ambitions by kathy benson, 5. turning big dreams into reality by shyam gokarn, 6. my hopes and dreams by celia robinson, 7. always pursue your dreams – no matter what happens by steve bloom, 8. why do we dream by james roland, 9. bad dreams by eli goldstone, 10. why your brain needs to dream by matthew walker, 11. dreams by hedy marks, 12. do dreams really mean anything by david b. feldman, 13. how to control your dreams by serena alagappan, 14. the sunday essay: my dreams on antidepressants by ashleigh young, essays about dreams in life essay topics, 1. what is a dream, 2. what are your dreams in life, 3. why are dreams important in life, 4. what are the reasons for a person to dream big, 5. what do you think about dreams in life vs. short-term sacrifice, 6. what is the purpose of dreaming, 7. why are dreams so strange and vivid, 8. why do dreams feel so real, 9. why are dreams so hard to remember, 10. do dreams mean anything, what is a dream short essay, how can i write my dream in life.

Writing about dreams is an excellent topic for essays, brainstorming new topic ideas for fiction stories, or just as a creative outlet. We all have dreams, whether in our sleep, during the day, or even while walking on a sunny day. Some of the best ways to begin writing about a topic are by reading examples and using a helpful prompt to get started. Check out our guide to writing about dreams and begin mastering the art of writing today!

“Everyone has the ability to dream, but not everyone has the willingness to truly chase their dreams. When people aren’t living their dreams they often have limited belief systems. They believe that their current circumstances and/or surroundings are keeping them from achieving the things they want to do in life.”

In her essay, author Michelle Colon-Johnson encourages her readers to develop a mindset that will let them chase their dreams. So, you have to visualize your dream, manifest it, and start your journey towards it! Check out these essays about dreams and sleep .

“At the time when I have my job and something to make them feel so proud of me, I would like to give them the best life. I would like to make them feel comfortable and see sweet smiles on their faces. This is really the one I like to achieve in my life; mountains of words can’t explain how much I love and appreciate them.”

Author Deborah Massey’s essay talks about her dreams and everything she wanted to achieve and accomplish in her life. She also tells us that we must live our values, pursue our dreams, and follow our passions for the best future.

“Fast-forward 5+ years, and my first published book is coming out this May with Scholastic. And now, let me tell you the truth: I don’t feel any different. I’m extremely grateful for the opportunity, proud of the work I’ve done, and excited for the book’s release. But on a fundamental level, I feel the same.”

In her essay, author Christine Nishiyama shares what she felt when she first achieved one of her goals in life. She says that with this mindset, you will never feel the satisfaction of achieving your goal or the fulfillment of reaching your dream. Instead, she believes that what fulfills people is the pursuit of their dreams in life.

“My dream is to become a good plastic surgeon and day after day it has transformed into an ambition which I want to move towards. I do not want to be famous, but just good enough to have my own clinic and work for a very successful hospital. Many people think that becoming a doctor is difficult, and I know that takes many years of preparation, but anyone can achieve it if they have determination.”

Author Kathy Benson’s essay narrates her life – all the things and struggles she has been through in pursuing her dreams in life. Yet, no matter how hard the situation gets, she always convinces herself not to give up, hoping her dreams will come true one day. She believes that with determination and commitment, anyone can achieve their dreams and goals in life. 

“I have always been a big dreamer and involved in acting upon it. Though, many times I failed, I continued to dream big and act. As long as I recollect, I always had such wild visions and fantasies of thinking, planning, and acting to achieve great things in life. But, as anyone can observe, there are many people, who think and work in that aspect.”

In his essay, author Shyam Gokarn explains why having a big dream is very important in a person’s life. However, he believes that the problem with some people is that they never hold tight to their dreams, even if they can turn them into reality. As a result, they tend to easily give up on their dreams and even stop trying instead of persevering through the pain and anguish of another failure.

“When I was younger, I’ve always had a fairytale-like dream about my future. To marry my prince, have a Fairy Godmother, be a princess… But now, all of that has changed. I’ve realized how hard life is now; that life cannot be like a fairy tale. What you want can’t happen just like that.”

Celia Robinson’s essay talks about her dream since she was a child. Unfortunately, as we grow old, there’s no “Fairy Godmother” that would help us when things get tough. Everyone wants to succeed in the future, but we have to work hard to achieve our dreams and goals.

“Take writing for example. I’ve wanted to be a professional writer since I was a little boy, but I was too scared that I wouldn’t be any good at it. But several years ago I started pursuing this dream despite knowing how difficult it might be. I fully realize I may not make it, but I’m completely fine with that. At least I tried which is more than most people can say.”

In his essay, author Steve Bloom encourages his readers always to pursue their dreams no matter what happens. He asks, “Would you rather pursue them and fail or never try?”. He believes that it’s always better to try and fail than look back and wonder what might have been. Stop thinking that failure or success is the only end goal for pursuing your dreams. Instead, think of it as a long journey where all the experiences you get along the way are just as important as reaching the end goal.

“Dreams are hallucinations that occur during certain stages of sleep. They’re strongest during REM sleep, or the rapid eye movement stage, when you may be less likely to recall your dream. Much is known about the role of sleep in regulating our metabolism, blood pressure, brain function, and other aspects of health. But it’s been harder for researchers to explain the role of dreams. When you’re awake, your thoughts have a certain logic to them. When you sleep, your brain is still active, but your thoughts or dreams often make little or no sense.”

Author James Roland’s essay explains the purpose of having dreams and the factors that can influence our dreams. He also mentioned some of the reasons that cause nightmares. Debra Sullivan, a nurse educator, medically reviews his essay. Sullivan’s expertise includes cardiology, psoriasis/dermatology, pediatrics, and alternative medicine. For more, you can also see these articles about sleep .

“The first time I experienced sleep paralysis and recognised it for what it was I was a student. I had been taking MDMA and listening to Django Reinhardt. My memories of that time are mainly of taking drugs and listening to Django Reinhardt. When I woke up I was in my paralysed body. I was there, inside it. I was inside my leaden wrists, my ribcage, the thick dead roots of my hair, the bandages of skin. This time the hallucinations were auditory. I could hear someone being beaten outside my door. They were screaming for help. And I could do nothing but lie there, locked inside my body . . . whatever bit of me is not my body. That is the bit that exists, by itself, at night.”

In her essay, Author Eli Goldstone talks about her suffering from bad dreams ever since childhood. She also talks about what she feels every time she has sleep paralysis – a feeling of being conscious but unable to move.

“We often hear stories of people who’ve learned from their dreams or been inspired by them. Think of Paul McCartney’s story of how his hit song “Yesterday” came to him in a dream or of Mendeleev’s dream-inspired construction of the periodic table of elements. But, while many of us may feel that our dreams have special meaning or a useful purpose, science has been more skeptical of that claim. Instead of being harbingers of creativity or some kind of message from our unconscious, some scientists have considered dreaming to being an unintended consequence of sleep—a byproduct of evolution without benefit.”

Author Matthew Walker, a professor of psychology and neuroscience, shares some interesting facts about dreams in his essay. According to research, dreaming is more than just a byproduct of sleep; it also serves essential functions in our well-being. 

“Dreams are basically stories and images that our mind creates while we sleep. They can be vivid. They can make you feel happy, sad, or scared. And they may seem confusing or perfectly rational. Dreams can happen at any time during sleep. But you have your most vivid dreams during a phase called REM (rapid eye movement) sleep, when your brain is most active. Some experts say we dream at least four to six times a night.”

In his essay, Author Hedy Marks discusses everything we need to know about dreams in detail – from defining a dream to tips that may help us remember our dreams. Hedy Marks is an Assistant Managing Editor at WebMD , and Carol DerSarkissian, a board-certified emergency physician, medically reviews his essay.

“Regardless of whether dreams foretell the future, allow us to commune with the divine, or simply provide a better understanding of ourselves, the process of analyzing them has always been highly symbolic. To understand the meaning of dreams, we must interpret them as if they were written in a secret code. A quick search of an online dream dictionary will tell you that haunted houses symbolize “unfinished emotional business,” dimly lit lamps mean you’re “feeling overwhelmed by emotional issues,” a feast indicates “a lack of balance in your life,” and garages symbolize a feeling of “lacking direction or guidance in achieving your goals.” 

Author David B. Feldman, an author, speaker, and professor of counseling psychology, believes that dreams may not mean anything, but they tell us something about our emotions. In other words, if you’ve been suffering from a series of bad dreams, it could be worth checking in with yourself to see how you’ve been feeling and perhaps consider whether there’s anything you can do to improve your mood.

“Ever wish you could ice skate across a winter sky, catching crumbs of gingerbread, like flakes of snow, on your tongue? How about conquering a monster in a nightmare, bouncing between mountain peaks, walking through walls, or reading minds? Have you ever longed to hold the hand of someone you loved and lost? If you want to fulfill your fantasies, or even face your fears, you might want to try taking some control of your dreams (try being the operative). People practiced in lucid dreaming—the phenomenon of being aware that you are dreaming while you are asleep—claim that the experience allows adventure, self-discovery, and euphoric joy.”

In her essay, Author Serena Alagappan talks about lucid dreams – a type of dream where a person becomes conscious during a dream. She also talked about ways to control our dreams, such as keeping a journal, reciting mantras before bed, and believing we can. However, not everyone will be able to control their dreams because the levels of lucidity and control differ significantly between individuals.

“There was a period of six months when I tried to go off my medication – a slowly unfolding disaster – and I’d thought my dreams might settle down. Instead, they grew more deranged. Even now I think of the dream in which I was using a cigarette lighter to melt my own father, who had assumed the form of a large candle. I’ve since learned that, apart from more research being needed, this was probably a case of “REM rebound”. When you stop taking the medication, you’ll likely get a lot more REM sleep than you were getting before. In simple terms, your brain goes on a dreaming frenzy, amping up the detail.”

Author Ashleigh Young’s essay informs us how some medications, such as antidepressants, affect our dreams based on her own life experience. She said, “I’ve tried not to dwell too much on my dreams. Yes, they are vivid and sometimes truly gruesome, full of chaotic, unfathomable violence, but weird nights seemed a reasonable price to pay for the bearable days that SSRIs have helped me to have.” 

In simple terms, a dream is a cherished aspiration, ambition, or ideal; is it the same as your goal in life? In your essay, explore this topic and state your opinion about what the word “dream” means to you.

This is an excellent topic for your statement or “about me” essay. Where do you see yourself in the next ten years? Do you have a career plan? If you still haven’t thought about it, maybe it’s time to start thinking about your future.

Having dreams is very important in a person’s life; it motivates, inspires, and helps you achieve any goal that you have in mind. Without dreams, we would feel lost – having no purpose in life. Therefore, in your essay, you should be able to explain to your readers how important it is to have a dream or ambition in life. 

Dreaming big sounds great; however, it’s easier said than done. First, you’ve got to have reasons to dream big, which will motivate you to achieve your goals in life. If you’re writing an essay about dreams in life, mention why most people dare to dream big and achieve more in life. Is it about freedom, money, praise from other people, satisfaction, or something else entirely?

For example, you could watch movies, play video games, relax every night, or give up all of them to learn a complex skill – what would you choose, and why? In your essay about dreams in life, answer the question and include other examples about this topic so your readers can relate.

There are many answers to this question – one is that dreams may have an evolutionary function, testing us in scenarios crucial to our survival. Dreams may also reduce the severity of emotional trauma. On the other hand, some researchers say dreams have no purpose or meaning, while some say we need dreams for physical and mental health. Take a closer look at this topic, and include what you find in your essay.

Weird dreams could result from anxiety, stress, or sleep deprivation. So, manage your stress levels, and stick to a sleep routine to stop having weird dreams. If you wake up from a weird dream, you can fall back asleep using deep breaths or any relaxing activity. You can research other causes of weird dreams and ways to stop yourself from having them for your essay about dreams and sleep.

The same areas of the brain that are active when we learn and process information in the actual world are active when we dream, and they replay the information as we sleep. Many things we see, hear, and feel in our everyday lives appear in our dreams. If you want to write an informative essay about dreams and sleep, look into more details about this topic.

Tip: When editing for grammar, we also recommend taking the time to improve the readability score of a piece of writing before publishing or submitting it.

People may not remember what happened in their dreams. Studies show that people tend to forget their dreams due to the changing levels of acetylcholine and norepinephrine during sleep. This will be quite an exciting topic for your readers because many people can relate. That being said, research more information about this topic, and discuss it in detail in your essay. 

Although some people believe that dreams don’t mean anything, many psychologists and other experts have theorized about the deeper meaning of dreams. Therefore, your essay about dreams and sleep should delve deeper into this topic. If you’re stuck picking your next essay topic, check out our round-up of essay topics about education .

FAQS on Essays About Dreams in Life

There are many great short essays about dreams; you can write your own too! Some great examples include Do Dreams Really Mean Anything? by David B. Feldman and  Dreams by Hedy Marks.

Writing about your dreams in life is a fantastic creative outlet and can even help you plan your future. Use a prompt to get started, like “What are your dreams in life?” or “What do you aspire to be in ten years?” and begin writing without thinking too much about it. See where the pen takes you and start mapping out your future with this writing exercise.

Have a language expert improve your writing

Run a free plagiarism check in 10 minutes, generate accurate citations for free.

• Knowledge Base

The Beginner's Guide to Writing an Essay | Steps & Examples

An academic essay is a focused piece of writing that develops an idea or argument using evidence, analysis, and interpretation.

There are many types of essays you might write as a student. The content and length of an essay depends on your level, subject of study, and course requirements. However, most essays at university level are argumentative — they aim to persuade the reader of a particular position or perspective on a topic.

The essay writing process consists of three main stages:

• Preparation: Decide on your topic, do your research, and create an essay outline.
• Writing : Set out your argument in the introduction, develop it with evidence in the main body, and wrap it up with a conclusion.
• Revision:  Check your essay on the content, organization, grammar, spelling, and formatting of your essay.

Instantly correct all language mistakes in your text

Upload your document to correct all your mistakes in minutes

Table of contents

Essay writing process, preparation for writing an essay, writing the introduction, writing the main body, writing the conclusion, essay checklist, lecture slides, frequently asked questions about writing an essay.

The writing process of preparation, writing, and revisions applies to every essay or paper, but the time and effort spent on each stage depends on the type of essay .

For example, if you’ve been assigned a five-paragraph expository essay for a high school class, you’ll probably spend the most time on the writing stage; for a college-level argumentative essay , on the other hand, you’ll need to spend more time researching your topic and developing an original argument before you start writing.

Receive feedback on language, structure, and formatting

Professional editors proofread and edit your paper by focusing on:

• Academic style
• Vague sentences
• Style consistency

See an example

Before you start writing, you should make sure you have a clear idea of what you want to say and how you’re going to say it. There are a few key steps you can follow to make sure you’re prepared:

• Understand your assignment: What is the goal of this essay? What is the length and deadline of the assignment? Is there anything you need to clarify with your teacher or professor?
• Define a topic: If you’re allowed to choose your own topic , try to pick something that you already know a bit about and that will hold your interest.
• Do your research: Read  primary and secondary sources and take notes to help you work out your position and angle on the topic. You’ll use these as evidence for your points.
• Come up with a thesis:  The thesis is the central point or argument that you want to make. A clear thesis is essential for a focused essay—you should keep referring back to it as you write.
• Create an outline: Map out the rough structure of your essay in an outline . This makes it easier to start writing and keeps you on track as you go.

Once you’ve got a clear idea of what you want to discuss, in what order, and what evidence you’ll use, you’re ready to start writing.

The introduction sets the tone for your essay. It should grab the reader’s interest and inform them of what to expect. The introduction generally comprises 10–20% of the text.

1. Hook your reader

The first sentence of the introduction should pique your reader’s interest and curiosity. This sentence is sometimes called the hook. It might be an intriguing question, a surprising fact, or a bold statement emphasizing the relevance of the topic.

Let’s say we’re writing an essay about the development of Braille (the raised-dot reading and writing system used by visually impaired people). Our hook can make a strong statement about the topic:

The invention of Braille was a major turning point in the history of disability.

2. Provide background on your topic

Next, it’s important to give context that will help your reader understand your argument. This might involve providing background information, giving an overview of important academic work or debates on the topic, and explaining difficult terms. Don’t provide too much detail in the introduction—you can elaborate in the body of your essay.

3. Present the thesis statement

Next, you should formulate your thesis statement— the central argument you’re going to make. The thesis statement provides focus and signals your position on the topic. It is usually one or two sentences long. The thesis statement for our essay on Braille could look like this:

As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness.

4. Map the structure

In longer essays, you can end the introduction by briefly describing what will be covered in each part of the essay. This guides the reader through your structure and gives a preview of how your argument will develop.

The invention of Braille marked a major turning point in the history of disability. The writing system of raised dots used by blind and visually impaired people was developed by Louis Braille in nineteenth-century France. In a society that did not value disabled people in general, blindness was particularly stigmatized, and lack of access to reading and writing was a significant barrier to social participation. The idea of tactile reading was not entirely new, but existing methods based on sighted systems were difficult to learn and use. As the first writing system designed for blind people’s needs, Braille was a groundbreaking new accessibility tool. It not only provided practical benefits, but also helped change the cultural status of blindness. This essay begins by discussing the situation of blind people in nineteenth-century Europe. It then describes the invention of Braille and the gradual process of its acceptance within blind education. Subsequently, it explores the wide-ranging effects of this invention on blind people’s social and cultural lives.

Write your essay introduction

The body of your essay is where you make arguments supporting your thesis, provide evidence, and develop your ideas. Its purpose is to present, interpret, and analyze the information and sources you have gathered to support your argument.

Length of the body text

The length of the body depends on the type of essay. On average, the body comprises 60–80% of your essay. For a high school essay, this could be just three paragraphs, but for a graduate school essay of 6,000 words, the body could take up 8–10 pages.

Paragraph structure

To give your essay a clear structure , it is important to organize it into paragraphs . Each paragraph should be centered around one main point or idea.

That idea is introduced in a  topic sentence . The topic sentence should generally lead on from the previous paragraph and introduce the point to be made in this paragraph. Transition words can be used to create clear connections between sentences.

After the topic sentence, present evidence such as data, examples, or quotes from relevant sources. Be sure to interpret and explain the evidence, and show how it helps develop your overall argument.

Lack of access to reading and writing put blind people at a serious disadvantage in nineteenth-century society. Text was one of the primary methods through which people engaged with culture, communicated with others, and accessed information; without a well-developed reading system that did not rely on sight, blind people were excluded from social participation (Weygand, 2009). While disabled people in general suffered from discrimination, blindness was widely viewed as the worst disability, and it was commonly believed that blind people were incapable of pursuing a profession or improving themselves through culture (Weygand, 2009). This demonstrates the importance of reading and writing to social status at the time: without access to text, it was considered impossible to fully participate in society. Blind people were excluded from the sighted world, but also entirely dependent on sighted people for information and education.

See the full essay example

Prevent plagiarism. Run a free check.

The conclusion is the final paragraph of an essay. It should generally take up no more than 10–15% of the text . A strong essay conclusion :

• Returns to your thesis
• Ties together your main points
• Shows why your argument matters

A great conclusion should finish with a memorable or impactful sentence that leaves the reader with a strong final impression.

What not to include in a conclusion

To make your essay’s conclusion as strong as possible, there are a few things you should avoid. The most common mistakes are:

• Including new arguments or evidence
• Undermining your arguments (e.g. “This is just one approach of many”)
• Using concluding phrases like “To sum up…” or “In conclusion…”

Braille paved the way for dramatic cultural changes in the way blind people were treated and the opportunities available to them. Louis Braille’s innovation was to reimagine existing reading systems from a blind perspective, and the success of this invention required sighted teachers to adapt to their students’ reality instead of the other way around. In this sense, Braille helped drive broader social changes in the status of blindness. New accessibility tools provide practical advantages to those who need them, but they can also change the perspectives and attitudes of those who do not.

Write your essay conclusion

Checklist: Essay

My essay follows the requirements of the assignment (topic and length ).

My introduction sparks the reader’s interest and provides any necessary background information on the topic.

My introduction contains a thesis statement that states the focus and position of the essay.

I use paragraphs to structure the essay.

I use topic sentences to introduce each paragraph.

Each paragraph has a single focus and a clear connection to the thesis statement.

I make clear transitions between paragraphs and ideas.

My conclusion doesn’t just repeat my points, but draws connections between arguments.

I don’t introduce new arguments or evidence in the conclusion.

I have given an in-text citation for every quote or piece of information I got from another source.

I have included a reference page at the end of my essay, listing full details of all my sources.

My citations and references are correctly formatted according to the required citation style .

My essay has an interesting and informative title.

I have followed all formatting guidelines (e.g. font, page numbers, line spacing).

Your essay meets all the most important requirements. Our editors can give it a final check to help you submit with confidence.

Open Google Slides Download PowerPoint

An essay is a focused piece of writing that explains, argues, describes, or narrates.

In high school, you may have to write many different types of essays to develop your writing skills.

Academic essays at college level are usually argumentative : you develop a clear thesis about your topic and make a case for your position using evidence, analysis and interpretation.

The structure of an essay is divided into an introduction that presents your topic and thesis statement , a body containing your in-depth analysis and arguments, and a conclusion wrapping up your ideas.

The structure of the body is flexible, but you should always spend some time thinking about how you can organize your essay to best serve your ideas.

Your essay introduction should include three main things, in this order:

• An opening hook to catch the reader’s attention.
• Relevant background information that the reader needs to know.
• A thesis statement that presents your main point or argument.

The length of each part depends on the length and complexity of your essay .

A thesis statement is a sentence that sums up the central point of your paper or essay . Everything else you write should relate to this key idea.

The thesis statement is essential in any academic essay or research paper for two main reasons:

• It gives your writing direction and focus.
• It gives the reader a concise summary of your main point.

Without a clear thesis statement, an essay can end up rambling and unfocused, leaving your reader unsure of exactly what you want to say.

A topic sentence is a sentence that expresses the main point of a paragraph . Everything else in the paragraph should relate to the topic sentence.

At college level, you must properly cite your sources in all essays , research papers , and other academic texts (except exams and in-class exercises).

Add a citation whenever you quote , paraphrase , or summarize information or ideas from a source. You should also give full source details in a bibliography or reference list at the end of your text.

The exact format of your citations depends on which citation style you are instructed to use. The most common styles are APA , MLA , and Chicago .

Is this article helpful?

Other students also liked.

• How long is an essay? Guidelines for different types of essay
• How to write an essay introduction | 4 steps & examples
• How to conclude an essay | Interactive example

More interesting articles

• Checklist for academic essays | Is your essay ready to submit?
• Comparing and contrasting in an essay | Tips & examples
• Example of a great essay | Explanations, tips & tricks
• Generate topic ideas for an essay or paper | Tips & techniques
• How to revise an essay in 3 simple steps
• How to structure an essay: Templates and tips
• How to write a descriptive essay | Example & tips
• How to write a literary analysis essay | A step-by-step guide
• How to write a narrative essay | Example & tips
• How to write a rhetorical analysis | Key concepts & examples
• How to Write a Thesis Statement | 4 Steps & Examples
• How to write an argumentative essay | Examples & tips
• How to write an essay outline | Guidelines & examples
• How to write an expository essay
• How to write the body of an essay | Drafting & redrafting
• Kinds of argumentative academic essays and their purposes
• Organizational tips for academic essays
• The four main types of essay | Quick guide with examples
• Transition sentences | Tips & examples for clear writing

What is your plagiarism score?

• The Big Think Interview
• Your Brain on Money
• Explore the Library
• The Universe. A History.
• The Progress Issue
• A Brief History Of Quantum Mechanics
• 6 Flaws In Our Understanding Of The Universe
• Michio Kaku
• Neil deGrasse Tyson
• Michelle Thaller
• Steven Pinker
• Ray Kurzweil
• Cornel West
• Helen Fisher
• Smart Skills
• High Culture
• The Present
• Hard Science
• Special Issues
• Starts With A Bang
• Everyday Philosophy
• The Learning Curve
• The Long Game
• Perception Box
• Strange Maps
• Free Newsletters
• Memberships

Will true AI turn against us? Will AI become an existential threat to humans? Explore question

Do we have free will? Is free will a phantom of brain chemistry, or are we truly in control of our lives? A question debated by great minds for millenia. Explore question

Should we trust science? Does science tell the truth? Explore question

Is religion helping or hurting us? Is the world better or worse with religion? Explore question

Why are there conspiracy theories? What is the psychology of fake news? Explore question

Are we alone in the universe? Will we ever find life elsewhere in the universe? Explore question

In an increasingly remote world, it’s more important than ever that you have a scalable, digital resource to build culture and enable transformation. Unlock potential across your organization by building the capabilities that are relevant today and will continue to be relevant in the future with Big Think+.

From leadership with Simon Sinek to design thinking with Sara Blakely, our learning content features expert insights from the world’s biggest thinkers. That’s why brands like Ford, PwC, and BMO trust Big Think to help employees learn and grow. 

Essay Topics – List of 500+ Essay Writing Topics and Ideas

List of 500+ essay writing topics and ideas.

Essay topics in English can be difficult to come up with. While writing essays , many college and high school students face writer’s block and have a hard time to think about topics and ideas for an essay. In this article, we will list out many good essay topics from different categories like argumentative essays, essays on technology, environment essays for students from 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th grades. Following list of essay topics are for all – from kids to college students. We have the largest collection of essays. An essay is nothing but a piece of content which is written from the perception of writer or author. Essays are similar to a story, pamphlet, thesis, etc. The best thing about Essay is you can use any type of language – formal or informal. It can biography, the autobiography of anyone. Following is a great list of 100 essay topics. We will be adding 400 more soon!

But Before that you may wanna read some awesome Essay Writing Tips here .

Get the Huge list of 100+ Speech Topics here

Argumentative Essay Topics

• Should plastic be banned?
• Pollution due to Urbanization
• Education should be free
• Should Students get limited access to the Internet?
• Selling Tobacco should be banned
• Smoking in public places should be banned
• Facebook should be banned
• Students should not be allowed to play PUBG

Essay Topics on Technology

• Wonder Of Science
• Mobile Phone

Essay Topics on Festivals on Events

• Independence Day (15 August)
• Teachers Day
• Summer Vacation
• Children’s Day
• Swachh Bharat Abhiyan
• Janmashtami
• Republic Day

Essay Topics on Education

• Education Essay
• Importance of Education
• Contribution of Technology in Education

Essay Topics on Famous Leaders

• Mahatma Gandhi
• APJ Abdul Kalam
• Jawaharlal Nehru
• Swami Vivekananda
• Mother Teresa
• Rabindranath Tagore
• Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel
• Subhash Chandra Bose
• Abraham Lincoln
• Martin Luther King
• Lal Bahadur Shashtri

Essay Topics on Animals and Birds

• My Favorite Animal

Essays Topics About Yourself

• My Best Friend
• My Favourite Teacher
• My Aim In Life
• My Favourite Game – Badminton
• My Favourite Game – Essay
• My Favourite Book
• My Ambition
• How I Spent My Summer Vacation
• India of My Dreams
• My School Life
• I Love My Family
• My Favourite Subject
• My Favourite Game Badminton
• My Father My Hero
• My School Library
• My Favourite Author
• My plans for summer vacation

Essay Topics Based on Environment and Nature

• Global Warming
• Environment
• Air Pollution
• Environmental Pollution
• Water Pollution
• Rainy Season
• Climate Change
• Importance Of Trees
• Winter Season
• Deforestation
• Natural Disasters
• Save Environment
• Summer Season
• Trees Our Best Friend Essay In English

Essay Topics Based on Proverbs

• Health Is Wealth
• A Stitch in Time Saves Nine
• An Apple a Day Keeps Doctor Away
• Where there is a will, there is way
• Time and Tide wait for none

Toppr provides free study materials like NCERT Solutions for Students, Previous 10 Years of Question Papers, 1000+ hours of video lectures for free. Download Toppr app for Android and iOS or signup for free.

Essay Topics for Students from 6th, 7th, 8th Grade

• Noise Pollution
• Environment Pollution
• Women Empowerment
• Time and Tide Wait for none
• Science and Technology
• Importance of Sports
• Sports and Games
• Time Management
• Cleanliness is next to Godliness
• Cleanliness
• Rome was not Built in a Day
• Unemployment
• Clean India
• Cow Essay In English
• Describe Yourself
• Festivals Of India
• Ganesh Chaturthi
• Healthy Food
• Importance Of Water
• Plastic Pollution
• Value of Time
• Honesty is the Best Policy
• Gandhi Jayanti
• Human Rights
• Knowledge Is Power
• Same Sex Marriage
• Childhood Memories
• Cyber Crime
• Kalpana Chawla
• Punctuality
• Rani Lakshmi Bai
• Spring Season
• Unity In Diversity
• Artificial Intelligence
• Online Shopping
• Indian Culture
• Healthy Lifestyle
• Indian Education System
• Disaster Management
• Environmental Issues
• Freedom Fighters
• Grandparents
• Save Fuel For Better Environment
• Importance Of Newspaper
• Lal Bahadur Shastri
• Raksha Bandhan
• World Environment Day
• Narendra Modi
• What Is Religion
• Charity Begins at Home
• A Journey by Train
• Ideal student
• Save Water Save Earth
• Indian Farmer
• Safety of Women in India
• Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan
• Capital Punishment
• College Life
• Natural Resources
• Peer Pressure
• Nature Vs Nurture
• Romeo And Juliet
• Generation Gap
• Makar Sankranti
• Constitution of India
• Girl Education
• Importance of Family
• Importance of Independence Day
• Brain Drain
• A Friend In Need Is A Friend Indeed
• Action Speaks Louder Than Words
• All That Glitters Is Not Gold
• Bhagat Singh
• Demonetization
• Agriculture
• Importance of Discipline
• Population Explosion
• Poverty in India
• Uses Of Mobile Phones
• Water Scarcity
• Train Journey
• Land Pollution
• Environment Protection
• Indian Army
• Uses of Internet
• All that Glitters is not Gold
• Balanced Diet
• Blood Donation
• Digital India
• Dussehra Essay
• Energy Conservation
• National Integration
• Railway Station
• Sachin Tendulkar
• Health And Hygiene
• Importance Of Forest
• Indira Gandhi
• Laughter Is The Best Medicine
• Career Goals
• Mental Health
• Save Water Save Life
• International Yoga Day
• Winter Vacation
• Soil Pollution
• Every Cloud Has A Silver Lining
• Indian Culture And Tradition
• Unity Is Strength
• Unity is Diversity
• Wildlife Conservation
• Cruelty To Animals
• Nelson Mandela
• Of Mice And Men
• Organ Donation
• Life in a Big City
• Democracy in India
• Waste Management
• Biodiversity
• Afforestation
• Female Foeticide
• Harmful Effects Of Junk Food
• Rain Water Harvesting
• Save Electricity
• Social Media
• Social Networking Sites
• Sound Pollution
• Procrastination
• Life in an Indian Village
• Life in Big City
• Population Growth
• World Population Day
• Greenhouse Effect
• Statue of Unity
• Traffic Jam
• Beti Bachao Beti Padhao
• Importance of Good Manners
• Good Manners
• Cyber Security
• Green Revolution
• Health And Fitness
• Incredible India
• Make In India
• Surgical Strike
• Triple Talaq
• A Good Friend
• Importance of Friends in our Life
• Should Plastic be Banned
• Nationalism
• Traffic Rules
• Effects of Global Warming
• Fundamental Rights
• Solar System
• National Constitution Day
• Good Mother
• Importance of Trees in our Life
• City Life Vs Village Life
• Importance of Communication
• Conservation of Nature
• Man vs. Machine
• Indian Economy
• Mothers Love
• Importance of National Integration
• Black Money
• Greenhouse effect
• Untouchability
• Self Discipline
• Global Terrorism
• Conservation of Biodiversity
• Newspaper and Its Uses
• World Health Day
• Conservation of Natural Resources
• A Picnic with Family
• Indian Heritage
• Status of Women in India
• Child is Father of the Man
• Reading is Good Habit
• Plastic Bag
• Terrorism in India
• Library and Its Uses
• Life on Mars
• Urbanization
• Pollution Due to Diwali
• National Flag of India
• Vocational Education
• Importance of Tree Plantation
• Summer Camp
• Vehicle Pollution
• Women Education in India
• Seasons in India
• Freedom of the Press
• Caste System
• Environment and Human Health
• Mountain Climbing
• Depletion of Natural Resources
• Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar
• Health Education
• Effects of Deforestation
• Life after School
• Starvation in India
• Jan Dhan Yojana
• Impact of Privatization
• Election Commission of India
• Election and Democracy
• Prevention of Global Warming
• Impact of Cinema in Life
• Subhas Chandra Bose
• Dowry System
• Ganesh Chaturthi Festival
• Role of Science in Making India
• Impact of Global Warming on Oceans
• Pollution due to Festivals
• Ambedkar Jayanti
• Ek Bharat Shreshtha Bharat
• Family Planning in India
• Democracy vs Dictatorship
• National Festivals of India
• Sri Aurobindo
• Casteism in India
• Organ trafficking
• Consequences of Global Warming
• Role of Human Activities in Global Warming
• Issues and Problems faced by Women in India
• Role of Judiciary in the Country Today
• Sugamya Bharat Abhiyan
• PUBG Mobile Game Addiction
• Role of Youths in Nation Building
• Value of Oxygen and Water in Life/Earth
• Farmer Suicides in India
• Start-up India
• Pollution Due to Firecrackers
• Life of Soldiers
• Child Labour
• Save Girl Child
• Morning Walk
• My School Fete
• Essay on Financial Literacy
• Essay On Sustainable Development
• Essay On Punjab
• Essay On Travel
• My Home Essay
• Child Marriage Essay
• Importance Of English Language Essay
• Essay On Mass Media
• Essay On Horse
• Essay On Police
• Essay On Eid
• Essay On Solar Energy
• Animal Essay
• Essay On Mango
• Gender Discrimination Essay
• Essay On Advertisement
• My First Day At School Essay
• My Neighborhood Essay
• True Friendship Essay
• Work Is Worship Essay
• Essay On Self Confidence
• Essay On Superstition
• Essay On Bangalore
• Sex Vs Gender Essay
• Essay On Social Issues
• Time Is Money Essay
• Essay About Grandmothers
• Essay On Hard Work
• First Day Of School Essay
• Flowers Essay
• My Favorite Food Essay
• Essay on Birds
• Essay on Humanity
• Essay on Sun
• Essay on Kargil War
• Every Cloud Has a Silver Lining Essay
• Francis Bacon Essays
• Importance of Cleanliness Essay
• My Sister Essay
• Self Introduction Essay
• Solar Energy Essay
• Sports Day Essa
• Value Of Education Essay
• Essay On Isro
• Essay On Balance Is Beneficial
• Essay On Reservation In India
• Essay On Water Management
• Essay On Smoking
• Essay On Stress Management
• Essay On William Shakespeare
• Essay on Apple
• Essay On Albert Einstein
• Essay On Feminism
• Essay On Kindness
• Essay On Domestic Violence
• Essay on English as a Global Language
• Essay On Co-Education
• Importance Of Exercise Essay
• Overpopulation Essay
• Smartphone Essay
• Essay on River
• Essay on Cyclone
• Essay On Facebook
• Essay On Science In Everyday Life
• Essay On Women Rights
• Essay On Right To Education
• Essay on Quotes
• Essay On Peace
• Essay On Drawing
• Essay On Bicycle
• Essay On Sexual Harassment
• Essay On Hospital
• Essay On Srinivasa Ramanujan
• Essay On Golden Temple
• Essay On Art
• Essay On Ruskin Bond
• Essay On Moon
• Birthday Essay
• Dont Judge A Book By Its Cover Essay
• Draught Essay
• Gratitude Essay
• Indian Politics Essay
• Who am I Essay
• Essay on Positive Thinking
• Essay on Dance
• Essay on Navratri
• Essay on Onam
• Essay on New Education Policy 2020
• Esasy on Thank you Coronavirus Helpers
• Essay on Coronavirus and Coronavirus Symptoms
• Essay on Baseball
• Essay on coronavirus vaccine
• Fitness beats pandemic essay
• Essay on coronavirus tips
• Essay on coronavirus prevention
• Essay on coronavirus treatment
• Essay on essay on trees
• Essay on television
• Gender inequality essay
• Water conservation essay
• Essay on Gurpurab
• Essay on Types of sports
• Essay on road safety
• Essay on my favourite season
• My pet essay
• Student life essay
• Essay on Railway station
• Essay on earth
• Essay on knowledge is power
• Essay on favourite personality
• Essay on memorable day of my life
• My parents essay
• Our country essay
• Picnic essay
• Travelling essay

Customize your course in 30 seconds

Which class are you in.

• Letter Writing
• It So Happened Summary
• Honey Dew Chapter Summaries
• The Alien Hand
• Malu Bhalu Summary
• Sing a Song of People Summary
• The Little Bully Summary
• Nobody’s Friend Summary
• Class Discussion Summary
• Crying Summary in English

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Download the App

Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump

He said Republican politicians would be easy to break. He was right.

Listen to more stories on curio

This article was featured in the One Story to Read Today newsletter. Sign up for it here .

I n the summer of 2015 , back when he was still talking to traitorous reporters like me, I spent extended stretches with Donald Trump. He was in the early phase of his first campaign for president, though he had quickly made himself the inescapable figure of that race—as he would in pretty much every Republican contest since. We would hop around his various clubs, buildings, holding rooms, limos, planes, golf carts, and mob scenes, Trump disgorging his usual bluster, slander, flattery, and obvious lies. The diatribes were exhausting and disjointed.

Explore the October 2024 Issue

Check out more from this issue and find your next story to read.

But I was struck by one theme that Trump kept pounding on over and over: that he was used to dealing with “brutal, vicious killers”—by which he meant his fellow ruthless operators in showbiz, real estate, casinos, and other big-boy industries. In contrast, he told me, politicians are saps and weaklings.

“I will roll over them,” he boasted, referring to the flaccid field of Republican challengers he was about to debate at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library that September. They were “puppets,” “not strong people.” He welcomed their contempt, he told me, because that would make his turning them into supplicants all the more humiliating.

“They might speak badly about me now, but they won’t later,” Trump said. They like to say they are “public servants,” he added, his voice dripping with derision at the word servant . But they would eventually submit to him and fear him. They would “evolve,” as they say in politics. “It will be very easy; I can make them evolve,” Trump told me. “They will evolve.”

Like most people who’d been around politics for a while, I was dubious. And wrong. They evolved.

J. D. Vance: Donald Trump is an opioid for the masses

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” Trump told me the following spring, as he was completing his romp to the 2016 nomination. We were talking on the phone, and Trump had just wrapped up a rally in Anaheim, California. Former Texas Governor Rick Perry had recently endorsed him, despite dismissing Trump earlier as a “cancer on conservatism” and “a barking carnival act.”

“He made a statement saying something like I’m ‘the smartest guy ever to run for office,’ ” Trump told me (Perry didn’t say exactly that , but close). “How do you get from ‘cancer on the party’ to that? I get it, I get it; it’s how politicians are. But I couldn’t do that.”

Trump accepted Perry’s support, and then promptly taunted him. “He was going [around] saying the worst things about me!” Trump said at the Anaheim rally. “I have never seen people able to pivot like politicians.”

“It’s happening with all of them,” Trump said. “Lindsey Graham just called and was very nice … even though he used to say the worst things.” (Graham had called Trump, among other not-nice things, “ a race-baiting, xenophobic religious bigot ” and “a kook.”) Soon enough, the last holdouts would come around too. “It’s just so easy, how they do that,” Trump said.

As went individual Republican politicians, so went the party. Reince Priebus, the chair of the Republican National Committee in 2016, would become frustrated with Trump over his obvious scorn for his organization. Still, Priebus would gamely try to assure me that the GOP was shaped not by one man but rather by a set of traditions, principles, and conservative ideals. “The party defines the party,” Priebus kept telling me.

After Trump won the nomination in 2016, “The party defines the party” became a familiar feckless refrain among the GOP’s putative leaders. House Speaker Paul Ryan vowed to me that he would “protect conservatism from being disfigured.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell told the radio host Hugh Hewitt that “Trump is not going to change the institution,” referring to the GOP. “He’s not going to change the basic philosophy of the party.”

In retrospect, this was hilarious.

By the second night of the 2024 Republican National Convention at Milwaukee’s Fiserv Forum in July, some attendees had started showing up with a gauze pad slapped over their right ears, a tribute to the boxy white dressing Trump wore to cover the injury he’d suffered in an attempt on his life in Pennsylvania just days earlier.

The near miss had cast a peculiar aura over Trump’s jubilee in Milwaukee. For one thing, the bloodshed reaffirmed the popular Republican notion that Trump is a uniquely marked and defiant figure, as reflected by the T-shirts being sold depicting the wounded nominee raising his fist (as well as the still-fashionable mug-shot merchandise). But I spoke with several convention-goers who appeared stunned into a heightened sense of vulnerability by the event: Trump’s physical vulnerability, yes, but perhaps something shared as well. One could view the ear bandages in the crowd as a communal gesture of humanity, or even empathy.

From the January/February 2024 issue: Trump voters are America too

Whatever was behind them, the ear accessories quickly spread through the crowd and became ubiquitous. In a sense, the entire Republican Party has become an accessory. To no one’s surprise, everything in Milwaukee revolved around its unavoidable protagonist, “our 45th and soon-to-be 47th president, Donald J. Trump.”

On the first night of the convention, Trump made what would become his familiar WWE-style entrance. His head filled the big screen as the Republicans’ official cantor, Lee “God Bless the U.S.A.” Greenwood, provided the walk-up sermon. “Prayer works,” Greenwood called out as Trump stood in the wings. And God ensured, “as Donald Trump turned his head just slightly, that the bullet missed him just enough.” Trump was then seen on-screen doing a quick twirl of his finger, the universal gesture for Let’s get on with this .

“We have believed for so long that God will make some changes in this country,” Greenwood continued. (This was a few days before the other party’s God, Joe Biden’s “Lord Almighty,” would finally get through the White House switchboard.) Greenwood persisted in bestowing his blessings until Trump could wait no longer and began his slow walk onto the convention floor.

The roar was colossal. Trump waved and clapped for himself. Everyone he passed stepped back in reflexive obedience, or awe. I’d been watching Trump’s adulators work the arena all week, trying to outdo one another. “My fellow Americans,” Senator Marco Rubio said from the podium while Trump—his Audience of One—squinted up at him like a building inspector. As with many other brand-name Republicans in the arena, Rubio had once despised Trump. He ran against him for president in 2016. It got ornery. Rubio implied that Trump had a small penis; Trump derided Rubio as “Liddle Marco” and called him “weak like a baby.” That last assessment held up well.

“The only way to make America wealthy and safe and strong again is to make Donald J. Trump our president again,” Rubio declaimed from the podium. Trump nodded along from his center box, radiating pride of ownership—Liddle Marco had grown up so beautifully.

Not all that long ago, Rubio had told me that “we should not have cults of personality” in the U.S. His parents and grandparents had fled dictatorship in Cuba. Their journey made him appreciate the gift of freedom and the danger of strongmen.

I talked a lot with Rubio in the last days of the 2016 primary, back when he was happy to speak candidly about Trump, and about how he knew better than to entrust the leadership of the United States to a “fraud,” “lunatic,” and “con artist” with autocratic instincts. And they all knew better—the Rubios, the Ted Cruzes, the J. D. Vances, the Doug Burgums, the Nikki Haleys, the Mitch McConnells, the Vivek Ramaswamys, all of them. They probably still know better. But they are all expedient, to their political core. “If you don’t want to get reelected,” Graham once told me, “ you’re in the wrong business .”

For years, many had predicted a reckoning, a shared realization that the noisy, grievance-packed redoubt that the GOP had become—marked by servile devotion to one man—was perhaps not aligned with the party’s best traditions of rugged, free-thinking individualists. “Anytime a leader builds an entire movement around himself, it almost always leads to disaster,” Rubio had told me.

After so many party defections, electoral defeats, and broken spirits, surely some Republican self-correction was inevitable. But although there have been flashes, they haven’t lasted. I’ve heard all the private doubts about Trump from his most public of validators. These private doubts were once very public. “Mark my words, there will be prominent people in American politics who will spend years explaining to people how they fell into this,” Rubio told The New York Times in 2016 , right before he “fell into this” himself.

“I don’t think so,” Doug Burgum, the North Dakota governor, said during his Republican-primary campaign last year, when asked whether he would ever do business with Trump. “I just think it’s important that you’re judged by the company you keep.” Within a few months, however, Burgum would be eager to tell everyone what regular company he was keeping with Trump. “It’s been a real honor for Kathryn and I to have spent as much time with the president as we have,” Burgum said in June as he was auditioning to be Trump’s running mate.

I’d thought that maybe 2024 would be the year the GOP finally began some semblance of a post-Trump future. At the very least, new voices of resistance had to finally assert themselves .

“I feel no need to kiss the ring,” Nikki Haley, Trump’s most competitive primary challenger in 2024, had vowed in February. Haley even made what passed for a subversive remark in her convention speech, when she said that not everyone agrees with Trump all of the time. “That’s their problem,” someone yelled out from the crowd.

But the ring, it would be kissed. “Donald Trump has my strong endorsement, period,” Haley said.

I ran into former Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson on the arena concourse. He was one of the only Republican-primary challengers who dared question Trump’s worldview. His campaign had gone nowhere, but Hutchinson held relatively firm. “I’m troubled,” Hutchinson told me. “I don’t want our party to be defined by attacks on our judiciary system. I don’t want it to be defined by anger.”

Hutchinson had previously distinguished himself as one of the few Republicans to have held elected office who said he would not vote for Trump. “I’ve made some commitments about not voting for a convicted felon,” Hutchinson conceded to ABC News later at the convention. Then he softened his position. “But that seems like a long time ago.”

Also a long time ago: the 2016 Republican convention in Cleveland, where Ted Cruz had delivered his plucky “vote your conscience” speech in defiance of Trump, whom Cruz had called “utterly amoral” and “a sniveling coward.”

“God Bless Donald J. Trump” is how Cruz’s speech in Milwaukee began. “Let me start by giving thanks to God Almighty for protecting President Trump,” he said, while the bandaged Almighty himself preened up at the sniveling coward onstage, who would follow him anywhere.

Biden’s defeat of Trump in 2020 had seemed certain to weaken Trump’s grip on the Republican Party, if not end his political career. No relevant precedent existed for any one-term president to become his party’s default front-runner in the next election. Especially not an extremely unpopular one-term president who lost by 7 million votes, refused to concede, incited a lethal insurrection in an attempt to overturn the result, was impeached for a second time, defied long-honored tradition by skipping the swearing-in of his successor, left behind a traumatized nation (with 25,000 National Guard troops defending the capital against his own supporters), became the first former president to be indicted … and the rest of the whole loser litany.

Yet the speed with which Trump has settled back into easy dominance of his party has been both remarkable and entirely foreseeable—foreseen, in fact, by Trump himself. Because if there’s been one recurring lesson of the Trump-era GOP, it’s this: Never underestimate the durability of a demagogue with a captive base, a desperate will to keep going, and—perhaps most of all—a feeble and terrified opposition of spineless ciphers (“weak like a baby”).

“You know what I liked about Trump?” Lindsey Graham asked, waxing nostalgic about the former president—and yearning for his return—during a speech in Nashville in 2022. “Everyone was afraid of him. Including me.” It was a killer line, Graham in his amiable-mascot mode. It would also suffice as a preview of the 2024 Republican presidential primaries. “Resistance” to Trump, lame as it was, had become an inside joke among the party faithful.

Trump’s last remaining primary challenger, Haley, quit the race on March 6. That same day, Mitch McConnell—who had criticized the then-president for his “disgraceful” conduct on January 6, 2021—endorsed Trump. Two days later, the spring meeting of the Republican National Committee, in Houston, featured a final address by the outgoing chair, Ronna McDaniel.

McDaniel can get a little weepy at times, especially during goodbyes—or, in her case, an eviction. She started the job in 2017, the day before Trump delivered his mood-setting “American carnage” speech at his inauguration. She had done her best for Trump, taken so much of his abuse and carried so much of his water. She sacrificed her dignity, her reputation, her future employment prospects—even her dynastic family surname, Romney, because Uncle Mitt had fully established himself as a MAGA infidel.

The granddaughter of a Republican governor of Michigan (George Romney) and niece of her party’s last pre-Trump nominee (Mitt), McDaniel was always the wrong nepo baby for this dynasty. Yet she tried to adapt. She said all the right things and made herself MAGA-friendly and reliable, enough to persuade Trump to make her his RNC chair.

Even then, McDaniel had to know that an inelegant end would come, as it usually does for even Trump’s most fervent flunkies and flatterers. She steadied herself at the podium on the fourth floor of the Hilton Americas–Houston, acknowledged her family, and gave a special nod to her staff. “Thank you for all your hard work to send our candidate, Donald J. Trump, back to the White House,” she said. A few RNC employees wiped away tears. They were surely aware that their own days were numbered in this consolidating family business.

Sure enough, 60 RNC staffers would quickly be axed by the incoming regime, executed by the new RNC co-chairs, Michael Whatley and—the real new boss—Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, who had been handpicked by the holy father (in-law) himself.

The message was clear: “That Republican Party, frankly, no longer exists,” Donald Trump Jr. gloated on Newsmax the day of the RNC staff purges. “The moves that happened today—that’s the final blow. People have to understand that … the MAGA movement is the new Republican Party.”

Lara Trump rose from her seat, slim, cocksure, and angular in the classic style of the family wives. Her father-in-law called Lara “his most valuable asset,” the Maryland committeeman David Bossie would say in his speech seconding her. She was fully fluent in the family language: victimhood. How unfair it all is. All of the witch hunts. “The scales are always tipped against him,” the new co-chair would later tell Sean Hannity on Fox News. “It’s rigged so heavily.”

“Since the day my father-in-law came down the golden escalator—everyone remembers that famous day—this has never just been about each of us as individuals,” she said in her acceptance speech in Houston. “It is about us as a family, and it’s been about our country.”

“This isn’t about just right versus left, Republican versus Democrat,” she said. “It’s about good versus evil.”

These were big stakes indeed. Heads nodded in every row as Lara gazed upon the crowd, and her voice softened in reverence.

“I’d be remiss,” she said, “if I didn’t thank President Donald J. Trump.”

She would never be remiss.

After Lara’s speech, I made a quick sweep of the place in search of McDaniel, but she had disappeared, possibly never to be seen again.

As I left the Hilton, I ran into Ron Kaufman, a Republican committeeman from Massachusetts. I was surprised to find that Kaufman, a vestige of the pre-Trump party—he served in George H. W. Bush’s administration—was still involved with the RNC. As it would turn out, he would not be there much longer: Kaufman was voted off by the MAGA-fied committee a month later.

He had to have seen this coming. Kaufman remained close to Mitt Romney and, unlike McDaniel, did nothing to hide this association. After Houston, Kaufman told me, he was heading down to Florida to celebrate Romney’s 77th birthday, not far—geographically, anyway—from Mar-a-Lago, where Trump would be receiving a dear friend of his own the same weekend: Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, an authoritarian whom Trump hailed as the best leader in the world.

Kaufman told me he was fine with Trump, explaining to me in the common parlance of a practiced Trump apologist that “not everybody likes his style.”

“Don’t you have any ambivalence at all about Trump?” I asked.

“I have ambivalence about my first wife,” Kaufman replied.

This was not an answer I was expecting.

“But you probably wouldn’t vote for her as president, either,” I said. “Or would you?”

I include this exchange because it typifies how some longtime Republican officials—clearly uneasy about Trump—can become comically evasive whenever asked about him. I interviewed several who veered straight into spheroid equivocation.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump famously tried to strong-arm to “find 11,780 votes” to overturn Biden’s 2020 victory in the state, seemed especially anxious when I had breakfast with him in Atlanta in May. “Why are you so afraid of saying what you really feel about Trump?” I asked.

“Because no one gives me the platform to do that,” he replied.

“But I just did,” I said.

“That’s not the platform,” Raffensperger said, looking down at the phone on which I was recording our discussion.

(Raffensperger’s communications aide then jumped in, effectively shutting down whatever platform this was or wasn’t.)

The night before, which happened to be primary night in Georgia, I’d attended an election watch party hosted by Mike Dugan, a former Republican majority leader in the state senate who was running for an open congressional seat near the Alabama border.

“Does anything about Trump give you pause?” I’d asked him.

“Oh yeah, I don’t want to hang out with him,” Dugan had told me, adding that he likes many of Trump’s policies.

But what about all of the outrage, distraction, and controversy Trump tends to generate?

“He’s not asking me to come play golf with him,” Dugan had explained to me.

“What if he did ask?”

“I’m not a golfer.”

Unluckily for Dugan, his main Republican rival for the congressional seat, Brian Jack, used to work for Trump in the White House. Back in March, Trump had traveled to Rome, Georgia, for a rally in which he would praise Jack as “a fighter” and “a MAGA man.”

Jack seemed like a savvy operative with good political instincts (proof: he did not respond to my texts). “I am both humbled and honored to earn your endorsement,” he said at the rally for the man he called “the greatest president and political athlete of all time.” As someone who has hung around Trump a lot, Jack knew enough to focus on the boss’s main erogenous zone: his golf game. Trump appears to reserve special appreciation for those attendants who are willing to exult in his alleged physical prowess—right out of the authoritarian playbook of the bare-chested and robust Vladimir Putin on horseback.

“I’m not sure if I should say this,” Jack said faux-sheepishly, “but, just a few weeks ago, President Trump put to shame two professional golfers.” He then revealed that Trump had shot a 70 on 18 holes. This sounded impressive, I thought, though not as impressive as the 11 holes in one that the North Korean dictator Kim Jong Il shot in the first golf game he ever played (source: North Korean state media, 1994).

Although Jack was not yet well known in this heavily Republican district, he was “Trump-endorsed”—all the yard signs said so—which is akin to a golden ticket in today’s GOP. (Jack wound up winning the primary by a large margin.) The path always starts with a beeline to Trump’s rump. As Florida Governor Ron DeSantis observed in January: “You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he’ll say you’re wonderful.”

In 2022, J. D. Vance proved himself a master. Although the Senate candidate from Ohio had previously dismissed Trump as “noxious,” “reprehensible,” and “cultural heroin,” among other things, he worked to convince Trump that he was reformed. Trump may or may not have believed him, but he very much relished the grovel of it.

“J.D. is kissing my ass. He wants my support so bad!” Trump bragged at a campaign stop with Vance in Youngstown in 2022. He also claimed that Vance had fallen “in love” with him. If anything, this is the fun part for Trump: showing off that he has snapped up another politician like a distressed condo asset. He had made another Republican candidate—a rich Ivy League ex-Marine, no less—self-emasculate on his behalf.

They all wore red ties, or most of them did. Fat and long, the signature Trumpian garments hung just below their belts. It was not clear whether Trump himself cared (he probably did; such an honor!), but dressing in the boss’s full uniform—white shirt, navy suit, and the signature neckwear—was an added curtsy. If Trump had a mustache, his acolytes would all grow and groom one just like his—as Baath Party loyalists did for Saddam Hussein.

They made their pilgrimage to the Manhattan Criminal Courthouse, where Trump spent a good part of May facing 34 criminal counts stemming from his ill-fated attempt to hide a $130,000 payment to his alleged porno paramour. The acolytes flanked their victim/defendant on the 15th floor as he sat with his arms crossed, jacket open, and eyes closed through prolonged stretches. “I do have a lot of surrogates, and they are speaking very beautifully,” Trump bragged during one of his news conferences.

My visit to 100 Centre Street coincided with the arrival of a large retinue of Trump’s defenders: 11 Republican House members made the trip that Thursday. They would take turns decrying (“very beautifully”) the “political persecution” that was taking place and the travesty of how Biden had “weaponized” the courts against the “greatest president in history.” I waited for the House members at a park across the street from the courthouse, along with a daily clot of reporters and camerapeople, clusters of pro- and anti-Trump demonstrators, and some bemused tourists, most of them from other countries, who had no idea what they’d stumbled upon.

“Standing back and standing by, Mr. President,” said Representative Matt Gaetz, the poofy-haired provocateur from Florida who led that day’s brownnoser brigade. Gaetz’s words, which appeared on X, intentionally echoed Trump’s from the 2020 debate where he’d been asked to condemn neofascist groups who had been disrupting some of that summer’s Black Lives Matter protests. “Proud Boys, stand back and stand by” is how Trump responded to the debate question, less a call for restraint than a call to action. (“A dog whistle through a bullhorn” is how Kamala Harris described it at the time.)

Each of the Trump toadies in attendance outside the courthouse said their piece about the towering injustice that was occurring inside. Trump is “in good spirits,” Representative Anna Paulina Luna of Florida reported, while Gaetz complained that their hero was facing “the Mr. Potato Head doll of crimes,” which is not technically a legal classification, by the way.

A group of New York hecklers greeted the traveling-circus caucus with Bronx cheers. One man stood behind the field-trippers holding a Bootlickers sign.

“Lies, lies,” the hecklers cried out.

“Get the fuck out of New York!”

“Go to fucking hell!”

“Matt Gaetz is a pedophile!”

Representative Lauren Boebert of Colorado started to speak but was interrupted by chants of “Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice,” which, for the uninitiated, referred to an incident at a Denver theater in September 2023 when Boebert was evicted from the musical comedy for performing a series of infractions in her seat: vaping, giggling, and fondling her date below the belt.

Straining to be heard over the hecklers, Boebert vowed that neither Trump nor his supporters would be gagged. “President Trump is not going anywhere … And we are not going anywhere, either.”

A few minutes later, they were all gone.

Boebert saved her best work for that night back at the Capitol, where the House Oversight Committee held a session to debate contempt charges against Attorney General Merrick Garland. (Originally scheduled for that morning, it had been postponed because so many members were in New York.) Boebert took the opportunity to boast on Trump’s behalf about one of his favorite topics: his supreme intelligence—as evidenced by the fact that, as Trump loves to mention, he allegedly once “aced” some cognitive test.

But here’s what Boebert actually said: “President Trump, when he was in office, underwent testing for his cognitive dissonance.”

I’ve noticed that for whatever reason, Trump is a magnet for these kinds of mangled phrases, misstatements, and malapropisms. This might be because those who speak excitedly about Trump, including Trump himself, tend to talk fast and off-the-cuff and perhaps have less capacity than most for shame and embarrassment (and grammar). They can be desperate to please and maybe get careless or lapse into Freudian candor. “We’ve been waging an all-out war on American democracy,” Trump announced in Iowa this past December.

Boebert’s “cognitive dissonance” claim made me think of the early days of COVID, in 2020, when Trump tried to convince everyone that the pandemic would soon disappear. Why? Because you’ll develop “a herd mentality,” Trump explained at a town hall in Pennsylvania. He presumably meant “herd immunity,” but this felt like an apt malapropism, if there is such a thing.

Trump’s movement had in fact drawn his followers together as a self-reinforcing herd. They were joined in contempt for a unified enemies list—defined loosely as liberal elites. They also shared the buoyant faith that supporting Trump would be a panacea. “Four more years, it’ll be fixed, it’ll be fine, you won’t have to vote anymore,” Trump reassured a gathering of Christian conservatives this past July.

“What Trump offers is an easy escape from the pain,” as Vance wrote in this magazine in 2016 . He was a fierce critic of Trump before he became a Republican Senate candidate who saw an obvious path to the front of the herd.

Vance was one of several vice-presidential prospects who trekked to New York to audition to be Trump’s next Mike Pence. He donned the red tie and nailed his umbrage marks. Vivek Ramaswamy, the super-thirsty former GOP-primary candidate, performed his own star turn at the courthouse, but with one notable hiccup. “Let’s pray for our country being stronger on the other side of this disgusting sham politician,” Ramaswamy said. He tried to correct himself—“prosecution”—but it was too late. The word had escaped. The moment went viral.

Cognitive dissonance can be exhausting, and there’s a lot of that going around the herd these days. I kept thinking about this as I ambled through the Republican convention. It was such an upbeat and cheerful affair, not characteristic at all of these gatherings since Trump took over the franchise and made it a grievance-filled and even menacing place. Trump was solidly up in the polls. He’d just survived an assassination attempt, which lent a charmed-life quality to the proceedings.

Several delegates I spoke with said the near miss proved that Trump either had been touched by God or possessed a superhuman ability to withstand danger. Biden, meanwhile, seemed old and tired, and his campaign appeared terminal (and in fact it was).

Yet beneath the Republicans’ triumphalist excitement in Milwaukee, I sensed an undercurrent of disbelief. They were projecting confidence, yes, but there was a tight, gritted-teeth quality to this, of a once-serious party that had now been subdued, disoriented, and denuded of whatever their convictions once were. The final scene of The Graduate came to mind: Dustin Hoffman and Katharine Ross were out of breath after catching the bus. They had gotten what they thought they wanted. But what had they really just done—again?

Republicans had expressed these doubts before, and not so long ago, before they all capitulated. I watched a lot of Trump’s biggest former skeptics as they peacocked their way through the arena: Rubio, Cruz, Graham, Vance, DeSantis, Burgum, Ramaswamy, Elise Stefanik, and the rest. They had made their calculations, wore their practiced faces of satisfaction, and had somehow found a way to live with the learned helplessness that Trump had reduced them to. But others who had served Trump had made different judgments. I kept recalling the words of retired Marine Corps General James Mattis, who had been Trump’s first secretary of defense. Mattis, who was of course nowhere near this convention, had issued a statement on the night of January 6, 2021, blasting Trump as well as those who enabled him as “pseudo political leaders whose names will live in infamy as profiles in cowardice.” In other words: They all knew better.

That was the nagging dissonance of this spectacle: the gap between what the GOP traditionally believed and what it now allows itself to abide. The party that allegedly reveres the Constitution is going all in on someone who has called for its termination. A party that cherishes freedom is willing to cede authority to a candidate who says he would be a dictator on his first day in office. A party that supposedly venerates law and order is re-upping with an actual felon. A party whose rank and file overwhelmingly wants Russia to defeat Ukraine believes that Biden stole the 2020 election, and that Trump’s legal shambles are entirely a Democratic plot. This is now a party whose standard-bearer has not been endorsed by any former Republican president or nominee, or even his own vice president, who barely escaped death by hanging the last time. And to what end, any of it?

Or maybe the dissonance doesn’t matter. Trump can do as he pleased, as he predicted. “Well, I think we’ve had very weak people,” he said in 2015. “I look at some of the people that are running, and I think they’re not strong people.” I remember hearing that as bombast at the time, the kind of casual dismissals Trump tosses around. In retrospect, though, Trump was prospecting, sizing up the Republican “leaders” he would be competing against. If nothing else, Trump has a keen eye for finding soft targets: pushovers he can bully, rules he can flout, entire political parties he can raze and remake in his image. He would roll over them.

This article appears in the October 2024 print edition with the headline “Hypocrisy, Spinelessness, and the Triumph of Donald Trump.”

About the Author

More Stories

The Political Tradition Harris and Walz Are Bringing Back

21 Minutes in the Buttigieg Bubble