Sitting here, drinking coffee and wondering one thing, what drives you to greatness? I was really torn by this question and decided to question people about what drove them. I received a very mixed answer pool and decided to share a few before trying to answer this question myself.
One answer
I received from a spunky friend of mine was the fact that she grows anxious
from not doing things. Attention Deficit Disorder seems to be a great motivator
but she has not been diagnosed with this. A natural inner push to stay busy and
always be achieving seems to be her driving force.
A close
friend of mine who I respect greatly gave me a simpler answer; A fear of
failure. I would imagine that fear would be debilitating and cause one to
freeze or never even try to achieve greatness. He clarified this in a sense,
the fear of failing as a person pushes him to achieve more of his goals.
A
spiritual friend of mine explained her drive as, “The desire to glorify God in
all that [she does].” This one is harder for me to relate to. I have my
relationship with God but I like to feel like he watches over us and only
intervenes if we ask him to, and even though in mysterious ways. I can see how
having faith helps keep the push to go far alive.
Recently
an old friend and I started talking again. He has taken his life in a new
direction and it is rather inspiring. He has developed a view changing the
world and giving back and it is working well for him. His answer was direct, “A
big part of it is me just trying to make this life something.” The desire to
never waste a moment and go far is a great reason to push forward through
everything.After this I decided to google greatness, to be more specific the exact search was, “What drives people to greatness?” The first answer I found interesting was the, “7 Traits of Greatness” which begins with the Power of Mission and Vision. A key factor in trait 1 is stated, “They [business achievers] build causes; not businesses. They are crusaders, propelled by a vision to make the world a much better place, with conviction and perseverance to make it happen.” This ties great to interview 4, his new convictions and desire to make life something and give back to this world is a direct trait of greatness.
Another
trait of greatness is “Power of the Journey.” It explains this by mentioning
Walt Disney and his multiple failures and financial disasters that could have
led him to failure. This shows that someone moving towards greatness doesn’t
allow them to be frozen in fear but instead enjoys the trials and terrors while
continuing.
The “7
Traits of Greatness” has more to offer but I cannot cover them all. If you
would like to continue the article then I will have a link for it lower down.
My next resource was another site titled, “Motivation for Dreamers.” This
article reveals “the secret” to greatness with one simple idea, “The secret to
attaining greatness is simply to do every small thing in a great way.” It goes
on to explain that greatness is not fueled by talent and it is not
predetermined because, “There aren’t any great men. There are just great
challenges that ordinary men are forced to meet.” This is rather inspiring to
consider. We can all be great if we just try to do so.
After
reviewing all of this I finally feel like I can answer my own question, “What
drives ME to greatness?” I honestly have no answer for this question because I
have never felt like I have aimed for greatness. I constantly find myself
frozen by the idea of failure and because of that I only attempt things that I
know I can succeed at. The things I can succeed at are simple and meaningless
so ultimately I will either continue in mediocrity or have to change something
to achieve greatness. What drives me to greatness… now; it is the desire to
feel greatness at least once in my life.
Links:
No comments:
Post a Comment