Pursuing Greatness

I don't want to be ordinary. I want a great life, a truly exceptional life--audacious as that sounds.

Many talk about greatness happening to people--that those who became great were the product of their times. Greatness is "thrust upon them", they believe.

This belief makes for great stories--the regular guy who is drawn into a life he couldn't have imagined. And this belief also absolves "regular" people from the responsibility to make the most of their life. It discourages the pursuit of exceptional living.

I do not want to wait and hope an exceptional life happens to me. I want to chase it down and make it real. I want to be a truly great human being.

Of course, how you define greatness is crucial. Money, for example, isn't how I measure greatness. But, as valuable as having that conversation is, I don't think it matters for the point I'm making. Whatever you do choose as your definition of greatness, I believe pursuing it matters. If I want an exceptional life, I need to order my life to maximize my chances of success.

Certainly, there's a lot outside our control that helps or hurts our chances of greatness. No one achieves greatness in a vacuum. But this doesn't mean we are helpless spectators. You can't control the ocean, but you can read the waves, point your surf board towards the shore and paddle your heart out.

What are you paddling toward? What kind of life do you want to live? What are you doing this week to increase the chances of that possible life becoming real?