GREATNESS
Greatness, as I will loosely define it here, is not reached once you are successful at one or more endeavors. In my humble opinion, Greatness is achieved when you fully commit to and undertake a journey with your heart, mind, body, and soul. Greatness inspires, Greatness motivates, Greatness benefits society.
Additionally I would like to mention that I do not consider Greatness and success to be completely synonymous and/or interchangeable. I believe that if you achieve Greatness you will inevitably achieve success; however, I also believe that you can achieve success without ever achieving Greatness. I find these two endeavors to be somewhat mutually exclusive and not always correlated or equivalent as society might suspect.
The following is not plagiarized from a specific book, article, or "Success" presentation. The following is based on my reading of several books and articles; engaging in sales training; professional, corporate, sport, and leisure environment observations; and personal life experiences all of which have shaped my concepts/thoughts/visions of how a person achieves Greatness and subsequently success; whether it be as a successful parent, successful athlete, successful entrepreneur, successful investor, successful philanthropist, successful student, successful volunteer, successful peacemaker...however it is that one may achieve Greatness and subsequently success.
In no particular order of importance, the following are common traits (with added details) that I have witnessed in people who have achieved Greatness.
And here is how you can start your journey:
VISION
* Clearly define what you want and how you will get it
* In essence, create a business plan for your life/dream/passion/skill/goal
ADVERSITY
* The hardest of times often lead to your greatest of moments
* Learn from your mistakes and don't repeat them
* Use adversity to drive you harder, further
BELIEF
* Have a champion’s mindset: unshakable faith in yourself, someone, or something AND steadfast confidence
BODY and Mind
* If you don't have your health, you don't have anything
* Take care of your body, take care of your mind, and you will have the foundation needed to overcome adversity and excel in your endeavors
HUSTLE
* Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard
POSITIVE HABITS
* Rise early and start your day
* Start your mind - write or read first thing in the morning
* Start your body - just move every morning; yoga, run, skip, hop, stretch...do something
* Express gratitude every day
KNOWLEDGE
* Seek knowledge - read, research, and be an attentive listener
TEAM
* Surround yourself with expertise and people that are smarter than you
* Teach yourself how to connect with EVERYONE (I suggest reading Dale Carnegie's latest revision and still timeless classic, "How to Win Friends & Influence People")
SERVICE
* Put others’ needs ahead of yours; think “give” before “get”
* "What comes around goes around" is more than just a cliche, it's a mantra
All of these traits can be found within ourselves, Greatness is achievable by everyone. If you feel that I missed anything, I would greatly appreciate any knowledge and/or experience that you may lend to this discussion.
TGIF and have a weekend of Greatness!