Friends

The Pursuit of Success Is Its Own Success

Greatness is not ahead of you; it is within you.

Posted July 8, 2012

No one ever became a better anything who wasn’t working on becoming a better person. Unfortunately, most of us have been raised to believe that greatness is a race to someplace always just ahead of us. Greatness however is not ahead of you but within you and asks only that you bring the character to reach for it.

Greatness asks only to be appreciated and pursued, and it will fall into your grasp. The pursuit of greatness is its own victory. The pursuit of success is its own success.

Greatness is not measured by your influence on history or on the masses, or even how many people are following you or are “friends” in a variety of social media. That is a reflection of power and popularity, not greatness, and gets confused only in a society or among historians sold on presuming that power and popularity are a measure of greatness.

People without power still have the power to be great, even as those with power can be a long day’s journey from great. Indeed, true greatness is how those with power treat those without power. And the bottom line on popularity is learning the power of “one.” Any one who makes peace with themselves has triumphed over the anguish of feeling less.

Greatness is not an alien planet. It is your home planet. The discomfort we feel when we are less than our best is our discomfort at the dissonance from the natural greatness of who we are.

Envision the journey to greatness as a welcome-home party where you have been waiting for you. This is your ride, your victory parade, your triumph of you. And oh yeah, on your journey be prepared to have some fun, because nothing, absolutely nothing feels better than feeling better.

By the way, if you’re wondering what to wear on this journey, why not wear a warm heart and an open mind.