Right now, where I am on my journey, I’ve been focusing a lot on what creates greatness and really, how you take your life to the deepest, most meaningful level.
To be clear, when I’m talking about this, for me, this isn’t about being famous, having a big title or having lots of money, as I think, if you desire them, those can be the by-products of greatness. I know in today’s world we can be conditioned to think of these alone as achieving greatness, but know your greatness is independent of this and really, that these, without meaning or impact, can fall flat in the soul world. Also, this is not about making wealth, success or being famous wrong. It’s more about finding meaning beyond it all, as this is what, at the end of your time here, will really matter.
That being said, for me, greatness is really all about how to create the biggest level of impact on this planet and with this, it’s about my legacy and what I leave behind.
Right now, mainly, I’ve been studying musicians, as to be honest, this happens to be the content that’s been right at my fingertips, though obviously, there are many great figures on this planet and many ways to greatness.
So, from what I’ve seen, below are six factors in creating greatness.
1. Good is the enemy to great.
In Jim Collins’ book, Good to Great, which I read several years ago now, he talks about how when we have good schools, business and governments that we are prone to accept this level as sufficient. This makes sense, as when you think about living a good life, and your definition of what this is, this is one of the biggest factors that stops us from reaching for more.
To change this, for me, this is about taking great risks and stretching myself beyond my level of comfort each and every day, until the Universe has an opportunity to catch up with my desire, which leads me to #2.
2. Hold the pose.
Do you know why most people fail? It’s because they give up before the energy has a chance to catch up with the action. What I’ve been choosing, instead, though, is to hold the (excuse my French) f*cking pose. No matter what my physical reality shows me, I know I’m aligned with my desires, and most importantly, I know that, if I am desiring them, they are meant for me. As part of this, when we go all in on our desires, so does the Universe. Unfortunately, what happens for most people is that they go part of the way or all the way in for a short period of time, and when they don’t see their desired result immediately, they assume it’s not working. Instead, how would show up if you knew you the only thing you had to do to achieve greatness was to not to give up and to choose your desires every damn day? What if this was your new definition of success? How would this change everything for you?
3. Be in it for the long run.
This goes along with the last one, but along with this, if you can have a long-term mindset that the only way you can fail is to give up, and with this, to keep your eye on your dream and the bigger picture, instead of the “cursed hows,” this is the path to greatness. With this, it’s more important to be like the tortoise than the hare and to keep your eye on the end point, and really, the long game, at all times.
4. Fail early, fail fast, fail often.
Entrepreneurs who stick it out get used to this. Along with this, what if you main goal, especially when you were starting something new, was to suck at it? How would this take the pressure off of you, and how could you use this just to focus on doing the task at hand and not allowing fear, not knowing exactly what to do and not being good at something to get in your way? How could this idea change everything for you?
5. Practice, practice, practice.
I believe it was in the band, Chicago’s, documentary where they talked about “out-practicing anyone”, but what if every single thing you did was just about sticking with it and getting better at it, versus having to be good at it right away, and with this, you viewed everything as practice? Yes, this analogy works well for music, but as I move into the Corporate World, every call, meeting and training I do is practice to be great. With this, what if there were no mistakes or failures? For me, even when I leave a message for a decision maker, for example, that I perceive could have sounded better, I remind myself when I get off the call that I can’t mess up if I’m doing it, and all of this is just practice.
6. Change your mindset.
What if you thought it was easy and was meant for you at all times? How would your actions change to match these beliefs? There are many ways you can perceive anything that’s happening, especially as you are achieving greatness. Two of them, for example, are that this is easy and fun or hard and difficult. Both are true at any one point, depending on how you’re looking at it, but which is serving you to create what you’re actually wanting to create? Easy and fun are the ones I choose to focus on, and if it’s not feeling true for me in that moment, I stop, take a pause, and choose to find the ways it is true for me.
I want to close today’s blog post with a great saying I saw years ago from Mike Dooley that has stuck with me:
“Do you know what happens before something big? Not a dang thing.”
To your greatness!
Deb