Greatness is a Skill
I used to believe that greatness was determined by whether we won or lost. Or what kind of accolades we won, records we broke, or our performances. As I’ve went deeper down the rabbit hole of greatness and excellence I’ve come to believe greatness is more than that. Sure we all want to win, but winning is often something that is out of our control. Therefore, you can be great and still lose. Accolades and awards are chosen by other people. So, you can be great without awards or recognition. I believe that greatness is a skill.
More accurately, greatness is a series of skills. We must learn how to work hard, discipline, productivity, how to handle adversity and face failure, to be gritty, to look inward, to compete and be confident, to set goals and create standards. Each of those is a skill, and each requires time and work to develop. Now, those are just a few things that we must learn how to do in order to achieve greatness, but let’s start to breakdown more of what you need to understand about this process.
Because greatness is a skill and requires you to develop a lot of sub-skills, it’s time to start to shift your mind. Think back to the first time you tried doing something you love today. Whether that was shooting a basketball, swinging a bat or golf club, signing, playing an instrument, creating art, or any other skill you love. The first time you attempted that skill, you weren’t very good. Especially in relation to where you are today. You had to practice and you got better over time.
Skills are acquired through hard work and trial and error. We must be willing to get ugly with it in order to get better. So, be prepared to not be very good when you get started. Be prepared to look bad and feel uncomfortable. The only way to get better at handling adversity is to create situations that put you in that setting. You have to get uncomfortable and learn how to react and respond in those situations. But the first time you do this, odds are you won’t handle it well.
That’s ok, give yourself the time to learn how to fail. This is a great skill to understand within the subset of skills of greatness, because failure will be a constant in your life no matter what career or direction you are going. Embrace how failure is a teacher and start to create a mindset of learning through failure. From there we can begin to attack the other areas of greatness.
The other thing to understand with looking at greatness as a skill. Because it’s a skill we can always improve. We can always get better. No matter where we are in our journey there is always more to learn. You will never arrive, you will only gain a better understanding with each step you take. This makes our journey for greatness even better, because since we will never fully arrive, there’s no end date or finish line we’re racing for. We can move at our own pace and as long as we’re slowly progressing up the mountain, we’re doing a good job.
Just like a master carpenter, musician, artist, or businessman may display a level of understanding and skill beyond anyone who has come before, they are constantly looking for the next level in their development. They are never done trying to improve their quality and knowledge around a particular skill. Pursuing greatness is a similar journey. You can become very good at a lot of the skills of greatness, but we can always improve and want more.
Greatness is a constant journey to a higher level than we are today. Embrace this journey and you give yourself an advantage. Those who think there is an actual destination of greatness may get better to a point, but they will lose their drive to continue to develop over time. Appreciate when things get messy. These are the areas where you will grow the most. Keep searching for the next path in your quest for greatness, and never stop looking to develop. Be Great.
