Welcome back to Open Discussion posts every Thursday! This is something I was writing about to myself in my personal journal (for which I use Penzu, and damn does it rock). As I wrote, it suddenly occurred to me this would be an awesome topic to restart Open Discussion posts.
Greatness is within us all, if we’re brave enough to let it loose, to be controlled by it. Possessed by it.
We have these ideas of things being “greater” or “lesser.” We admire the greater and disparage the lesser. And yet, most of us settle for less. I think it’s because we don’t want to pay the perceived price of greatness. We fear greatness will demand sacrifice and all manner of mysterious hardships, while our current state of “just settling’ is familiar and comfortable enough for us to stay as we are.
Are the rewards of greatness worth its demands? It seems we should know what the demands and the rewards of greatness are, or we can’t answer the question.
What does greatness demand of us? What are its rewards?
First of all, I agree with the premise that greatness is within us all, and I think that is a first important distinction. I believe that many people don't believe that they are capable, or more accurately, worthy of greatness. I think people settle for less because they lack the confidence and can't visualize themselves following the path and capturing their dream. If they did, if they truly felt their passionate dreams were achievable, then…what seemed like a sacrifice at one time, may suddenly pale when compared to the prize.
I think people might fall into two camps on this: those who don't believe
they're capable of greatness, and those who know they are but are afraid of
it.
I think greatness has this sense, to some, that you're 'selling out' on certain levels. When you hit that stride and shoot up, if you're not paying attention or let it all go to your head – you often forget the core group of people that got you there.
And I know a lot of people will say – nooooo, I wouldn't do that – but it's just one of those things that happens. You're eventually surrounded by people that influence you in certain ways that go out of your core values. It's very rare to see someone that struck it big continue to stay down to Earth.
In a lot of ways, people expect them to be extravagant – they almost demand that they follow these paths.
It reminds me, I forget the name of the poem, but it want along the lines of the entire town holding onto this one persons fame, latching onto it and trying to get them up there but once they were, everyone began to break him down.
Murlu,
I've been thinking about your comment, and I think one of the real prices of success and growth that we can't get away from is that when we grow, either personally or in business, we do lose certain people in our lives. For whatever reason, people don't stay on the same path and we part ways. This is a very HARD price of success and for a lot of people it is one that stops them dead in their tracks. They are afraid, or unwilling to grow farther or faster then their friends or partners so they hold themselves back from success. One demand of success is that we follow our own path, on our own time. We can't wait for others to catch up.
I've always been an ambitious person obsessed with the need to “be great,” to be special, to be better. But the thing is, no matter how many great things I accomplish, it's NEVER enough. I wish I didn't have this attitude, because it's not a path to happiness in my experience.
There's no end to it, it's a forever-receding horizon line. That's life.
There is no “arrival.” Only the journey. I have to admit sometimes that gets
me down and I don't want to even bother… but only sometimes. Because the
other side of that is this: if I'm not going to bother, then what is the
point of life? Life seems to be whatever we make it.
To me greatness is all about finding what you really want in life. Something that you really love. If you're really passionate about your dream this should help motivate you and make it feel worthwhile.
That's one path to greatness. Sometimes greatness is thrust upon people
whether they wanted it or not. But for many of us, knowing what we really
want is a huge step in the right direction. Most of us don't know what we
want. Have no idea.