Find Your Path To True Greatness?

Robert left the following comment after the last post.

Greatness itself is a bit of a nebulous concept too. Who defines what it is? It seems to me that most people think the level of greatness of a person is directly proportional to the number of people who view you as great. There are many ways to achieve that, not all of them honest. Also, some kinds of greatness are negative – the superlative tyrant might be one, or ambiguous – the great warrior. For example, some of the so-called great explorers in early colonial Australian history have since been shown to be not quite so great.

Before we begin to discuss this further, let’s look at how we usually define greatness.

Greatness = Accessing Your Highest Potential

I would define greatness as being more fully yourself.  Bringing more of who you really are into the world.  We all know that there is more we could do and become.  We know we could handle things better, it’s just that at times life is coming at us quicker than we can handle and so we get flustered or frustrated and react badly.  Later we know what we should or could have done.  The problem is in having the confidence and emotional balance and security to slow down and bring that wiser, more mature response into play.

Physically, we enter the world completely and automatically grow and develop as we age.  Emotionally, psychologically and spiritually we grow and develop only to the degree we are willing and open to.

As we journey through life we uncover more about our preferences, our skills, what we struggle with and develop our personal code of honour.  The more open and honest we are in developing our self awareness, the more we understand our personal DNA.  Growth requires experience, observation and reflection.  You can only find out about yourself by experiencing many of life’s contexts.

We need to taste failure and success, ecstasy and despair, love, hate and indifference.  Otherwise we do not get to see the full dimensionality of our personality.  It is easy to be confident, patient and tolerant when everything is going well.  It is in adversity, in persecution and in rejection that we discover how strong our character really is.

The more we understand ourselves, the more we can focus on our strengths and avoid the areas of life that are none of our business.  Everyone has the same amount of time in a day and days in a year.  It is by investing more of this time into one narrow area that causes us to be faster, stronger, more musical or know more about a specific topic, which leads to recognition by others.

Everyone has a self with more potential, whether you call that a Higher Self, Daemon or Genius.  This is our potential greatness.  First though, we must develop the ability to see and communicate with that other Self.  Some people see this as tapping into the unconscious.  Others believe it to be a more spiritual connection.  What you see it as, is irrelevant and determined by your perspective and culture.  What matters is the strength of connection you can build to bridge between your Selves.

photo credit: dougtone

This brings the clarity to become that Self in our physical world and so project the essence that we are, to the wider world.  It is this manifestation of the greater You, the higher Self that is commonly acclaimed as greatness.

Greatness is a Journey Not An Achievement

The uncovering of your personality is an ongoing process.  It does not end in a crescendo as you find yourself, once and for all.  There are ever greater mysteries to uncover.  Too often we aspire to make the huge leap that is too far for us to make yet.  And so we fail.  Or more accurately, we perceive that we fail.  From the deeper and broader perspective we haven’t failed, we have just got a more accurate picture of our capabilities.

How should we deal with failure?

The disappointment that most people feel with failure comes from a judgement that their skills are insufficient.  But failure is specific to a period of time, not to the entire span of your life.  Improving your skills means that next time you will be a better match to the challenge.

Sometimes we fail because we didn’t make a sale, didn’t get the job we interviewed for or didn’t get the boy/girl.  Although we judge this as a failure, it really isn’t.  Some of our goals are not the right goals for us.  Maybe if we’d have got the job/sale/lover it would have been a nightmare.  And maybe the not getting it opens up a much better opportunity.

If greatness is being true to what you are, then it cannot be measured by other people’s opinions.  And if greatness is to measured by public opinion, then your fate will always be fickle and out of your control.

Sometimes we fail because we performed below our best.

Sometimes we fail because we were harrassed and knocked off our emotional balance.

Sometimes we fail because we tried something beyond our skill level.

To assess this, you need to take an honest, dispassionate look at the situation.  Get other people’s opinions.  And then reflect, what really caused the failure.  The extent to which you can do this is a reflection of how willing you are to grow.

photo credit: gogoloopie

You have to keep going because there is nothing else to do.  You are, what you are.  You cannot be anything other than what you are.  You can’t give up on what you are.  The quest for greatness is not the quest for fame, recognition or money.  It has more to do with your attitude and approach to life than how you spend your time.  You can live what appears to be an ordinary life, yet live it in search of greater clarity, purpose and honour.

The starving Artist is one who has devoted his life to developing great talent.  Great talent is only a part of greatness.

The Two Common Blocks To Greatness

I believe that everyone has the potential for greatness.  Most people try to fit the templates of society and in never trying to lead a truly authentic life, they never feel the need to dig deep enough to see the contents of their soul.  However, others do see glimpses of their greatness, but fear, doubt and anxiety hold them back from projecting the gift that they are to the world.

One of the things that reality tv has shown, that psychology previously proved, is that generally the more we know of someone, the more we like them.  Most of the people that we don’t like, I suspect all,  we dislike because we don’t know enough about them.  Ignorance is the basis for all forms of prejudice.  We see one characteristic, or behaviour, in isolation and decide that as we don’t like that, because we don’t see or understand the larger picture, we don’t like the person, the race or group.

At the start of a series of Big Brother or X Factor, we make snap judgements of the Contestants, but as we get to see them in more depths, we get to see a fuller, more dimensional picture of the person that they are and often grow to like and care about them.

In the same way, people can only care about you and recognise your greatness to the extent that you are willing to share who and what you are.  If you do not share the full picture, they will have to make prejudicial snap judgements based on what they see of you.  Not what you are.

The Danger of Conditional Confidence

But before you can project your greatness, you have to have the clarity of mind to see it.  We must see what we can do, before we do it. Yet many people lack faith in themselves to take a leap into the unknown.  Often we see confidence, success, and also morality, as being democratic.  As if the number of people that agree on a person or action as being good, being the definition of what we believe.

‘If other people believe in me, I’ll believe in me’

‘If I succeed, I’ll get more confident’

‘ Everyone else does it.’

However the problem here is that to get started you need enough confidence to take risks.  Furthermore, if your confidence is based on other people’s opinions or on you succeeding, it is flawed.  For every journey has it’s ups and downs.  If your confidence is conditional on results or the approval of others, it will fluctuate with your performances and popularity.

Whereas a confidence that is based on your self belief will remain steadfast and can be relied upon in times of adversity, when you need it most.

Many people have spoken about our conscious awareness being merely the tip of the iceberg.  Our greatness is beneath our level of conscious awareness.  And so it is not something that comes automatically like physical development.  It is something that we uncover as we explore, experience and reflect.

Greatness = Great Talent + Great Character

True greatness is not democratic.  It is not decided by the opinion of other people.  It is the fulfilment of what we are.  It is true that in a social interaction we might share our opinions of other people’s greatness or lack thereof.  But this is entertainment and gossip.  Truly, the only valid judgement of your greatness can only ever come from yourself.  Greatness bestowed by another is conditional.  And like conditional confidence and conditional love, conditional greatness ebbs and flows with the moods of others.

When we look upon our history, it is only those who are the Ancestors of our historical lineage that are bestowed the accolades of greatness.  Equally great feats that were opposed to our Ancestors are denounced.  Adolf Hitler was great to those who believed as he did.  Josef Stalin was great to those who believed as he did.  Pol Pot, Idi Amin, Saddam Hussein and all the other Tyrants.

Christopher Colombus is often seen as a hero to the western world, yet his discovery of the United States and subsequent actions directly killed about five million people in the first three years.  And that was just the start.  Had the outcome been different we would now be talking of Colombus in the same way as we speak of Attila the Hun.

Greatness is subjective.  As is history.  Our culture shapes what we believe happened in the past and whose actions were great and whose were evil, unless we take control of our beliefs and define for ourselves what we stand for.  Our only concern for greatness should be our own.  Not for the rewards or acclaim that greatness can bring, but because everything that we seek comes through the journey to our personal greatness.

David Beckham or Madonna have fame in their DNA.  It comes wrapped in what their talents are.  Some people are destined to live in the limelight.  But that does not make them any greater than a great Teacher in a rough inner city school or a great Nurse tending to the dying.  Greatness is greatness and fame is fame.  The two are not synonymous.  Some accomplishments coincide with public interest, others don’t.  The true boon of greatness is intrinsic.

It is easy to see those who have demonstrated great skill, yet have not developed the character of greatness.  Kurt Cobain, Britney Spears, Robbie Williams and Amy Whitehouse instantly spring to mind as examples of talented Individual’s who have never developed their skill on a solid foundation of character.

Hitler, Stalin and Amin are other examples of people who developed skill to wield power, but lacked the maturity and strength of character to share their talent responsibly.  As are many Politicians, Bankers, Businessmen and people in every field.  Fear and greed turn great talent into great acts of evil.  The ability to do great things does not equal Greatness, unless it comes with the maturity and self control to use power and influence responsibly.

We Must Define Greatness For Ourselves

In the final analysis, no-one else’s opinion matters.  All that matters is what you believe.  It is only your judgement that counts.  It is this act of deciding, that is the path to greatness, the becoming of what we could be and already are at the deepest level of our being.  The working out in real time what we are.  Which is equally importantly, the deciding of what we are not.  It is through this deciding and refining that we sculpt ourselves into a masterpiece.