Want To Achieve Greatness? Start By Combining These 3 Things

If I were to ask you what how do you define the word "greatness," what would you say?

How do you know that you’ve reached that level in your life?

If we go by the dictionary definition of “greatness," it is:

Concept of a state of superiority affecting a person or object in a particular area or place.

But how does that compare to us introspectively looking at our lives, our individual accomplishments and the goals we set out to reach?

I bet if you walked down the street and asked the first 10 people that you came across how do they define greatness, I guarantee that none of them could give you the definition above and all of them will tell you something different.

Because that’s exactly what greatness is. It varies from person to person.

There is no “one-definition-fits-all.” It can't be.

Greatness is measured by what we choose to measure it by.

It is not something that means the same to everyone because we all have different perspectives and interpretations.

On the other hand, the path to reach greatness in any aspect of life is a method that I believe almost anyone can understand and agree with.

No matter how you describe or define it, achieving greatness requires at the most basic level, involves specific principles that have to be practiced over a certain period of time.

What you have to understand that it’s not so much about how we define greatness individually.

It's about doing what it takes to actually achieve it in your life.

Here is the most basic method for how anyone can achieve greatness in anything:

How To Achieve Greatness In Anything

Discipline- Constant, consistent efforts create habits. Habits create discipline. Discipline is one of the primary building blocks to reachable greatness.

 “Those who only do what they feel like… don’t do much. To be successful at anything you must take action even when you don’t feel like it, knowing that the action itself will produce the motivation you need to follow through.” -Hal Elrod

Discipline is all about doing something when you don't feel like, over and over and over again. To do something everything single day sounds simple, but putting it into practice far from easy. From my personal experience, there are two main keys to creating the habit of being disciplined. First, you have to develop a schedule around a particular activity. Secondly, you then have to track your progress over time. If you consistently do something repeatedly and intentionally, that leads to improvement. The only way you know that it’s working is if you track your progress because if it's not intentional then you could end up wasting your time in the long run. Above everything else, make sure that you are doing what it takes to show up every day then ensure that you’re always moving in the right direction.

Talent- There is a well-known quote that says “hard work beats talent when talent fails to work hard.” After years of hearing this, I actually believe that it isn’t all the way true. The truth is that hard work beats talent when talent fails to work at all. What no one really tells you is that in most professions and careers, natural talent actually matters, a lot. Talent can take you to places that hard work can’t. Talent can get you in the door, but hard work is what keeps you in there. If you want greatness in anything, you need talent in your life. You need natural ability in whatever you choose to pursue because the hard work alone won’t allow you to get to “greatness.” If you compare Stephen Curry and Lebron James, it’s clear that they both are amazing basketball players, but I think most people would say that Lebron is the better player in the world. This isn’t because Steph Curry doesn’t work hard, they both do. With Lebron James being 6’8, 270 lbs, and having remarkable speed and agility, he has a natural talent in the game of basketball which has allowed him to do things on the court that Steph Curry can’t or won't ever be able to. This goes across anything in life, not just basketball. There are going to be people who are more talented than you in certain things and despite how hard you work, you just won't ever be better than them. Whoever said that you can outwork talent obviously never realized that talent is a necessity in any craft. Talent always matters at the end of the day and to reach greatness, you have to have some of it.

 Passion- I think it's safe to say that if you don’t love what you do, you’ll never become great at it. Passion is the engine that pushes you towards greatness. Without it, you have no drive (pun intended), no motivation and no sense of urgency. To be clear, loving what you do doesn't mean that it will always be easy, fun or that'll you will even want to do it every day. In fact, love and passion can hurt a lot of the time. It can be draining and require serious effort. You have to be willing to endure those types of difficulties to reach greatness. You have to willing to work day in and day out while trusting that your work will pay off. I loved playing basketball and knew I was blessed to be able to do it at a high level, but there were definitely days in which I hated it and didn't even want to touch a ball. I started to understand that all of this was apart of the process to reach a level of greatness. If you never experience an urge to quit chasing your passion then you probably aren't challenging yourself enough. You think your favorite athlete never wanted to quit? It's supposed to be hard. It's supposed to hurt. But if you really love it, you'll be willing to sacrifice immediate pain for everlasting greatness.

“I hated every minute of training, but I said, ‘Don’t quit. Suffer now and live the rest of your life as a champion.” -Muhammed Ali

Why Most People Won't Live Up To Their Definition Of Greatness

Despite what anyone thinks greatness means, most people won't ever actually achieve that definition.

The sad and unfortunate truth is that it is extremely hard to set out to live an extraordinary life and it is extremely easy to settle for an ordinary one.

Anyone has the ability and choice to reach greatness at their own definition, the unfortunate truth is that people often don't even believe that they can live up to their own expectations of their lives.

You probably already know this though.

How many times has someone told you that they were going to do something, but never even started?

Better yet, how many times have you committed to doing something only to quit maybe two or three weeks into it?

Don't worry, this is not about judging you, criticizing you or making you feel terrible about yourself. It's about really understanding and setting the bar for what greatness means in your life then realizing what it takes to get there.

It's not easy and not for everyone, but that's why so few people achieve greatness, even at their own definition.

In Conclusion

If you want to live an exceptional and extraordinary life, you have to give up many of the things that are part of a normal one.” -Srinivas Rao

The raw truth is that you have to give up the things you're used to in order to reach greatness.

You have to give up comfortability and complacency.

You have to instill discipline and consciously make the right choices daily.

Greatness doesn't happen by chance or accident.

It is about making deliberate, well-thought-out choices to work toward something that you're good at and something that you love to do.

Only when you realize this, do you start paving the road to living in your greatness, no matter what your definition of it is.

Want To See How I Went From Athlete To Entrepreneur? Sign up for my ebook The Pivot Game.

Malcolm Lemmons is a former professional athlete turned entrepreneur, author, and speaker. He has been featured in the Huffington Post, TVOne, ABC & WJLA. To check out more from Malcolm, visit his website at www.malcolmlemmons.com or connect with him on Twitter & Instagram.