Be The Greatest

All of us have dreams of greatness. Some of us have been beaten so bad in life that we have buried our dreams deep down inside. Others seem to be great at everything no matter what they are doing. That desire for greatness is there fore a reason. It’s God given and whether you feel you have been a failure or like you are king of the world you can learn how to be great from this point on.

Greatness is not about what we do as much as it is how we think.

Muhammad Ali was one of the greatest boxers who ever lived. I’m sure most of us have seen the viral video: How Great I Am if you haven’t stop what you are doing and go watch it.

We all know he professed his greatness but there is a much less known quote that should also be an inspiration to all of us who do not (yet) believe we are great:

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I am the greatest, I said that even before I knew I was.

-Muhammad Ali

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You CAN become the greatest, how bad do you want it?

We all begin at a skill level of 0 where you go from there is up to you.

No matter what it is there are a few things you must to do to become great:

It doesn’t matter what it is; it can be a sport, a skill, even in your walk with God the following principles remain the same if you desire to achieve greatness.

1. Define the Goal: When you have a dream in your heart you must first clarify what it is. This gives you a bull’s-eye to aim for. Go big! If it is something you already think you can do you are thinking too small. Plan to do something impossible.

For example:

Don’t say: “I want to be an awesome Mountain Biker.” This is too vague and you will never know if you get there.

Do say: “In 3 months I want to be able to make it to the top of this mountain in 15 minutes.” This way you have a clear goal to shoot for and you will know exactly when you reach it.

2. Start Today: One of the primary reason’s people fail is because they never begin. Tomorrow very quickly becomes never. Figure out what you can do Right Now to begin on your path to greatness.

Fill in the blanks with the first 3 steps you need to take in order to achieve you goal:

Right Now:________________________________

Tomorrow:________________________________

Day After:  ________________________________

3. Deliberate Practice: My Dad always used to tell me, “Practice doesn’t make perfect; perfect practice makes perfect.” As you begin to grow in skill you will find weak points in your abilities. If you can find a way to work around them, do that. It is almost always better to focus on what you are good at than to try and constantly improve your weaknesses. If it is something core to your improvement then you must focus on that skill until it becomes second nature to you.

With my Mountain Biking example I know that I hunch over too much when pedaling and can’t breath properly because of it. This means that I need to be deliberate when I ride and pay attention to my position as I’m climbing up the hill. During my next ride this will be all I’m concentrating on so that I can be sure to get full deep breaths through the entire ride.

You are only as strong as your weakest link.

4. Get a Good Mentor/Coach: This will get you going the fastest and save you immeasurable time in the long run. Coaches will see what you don’t and will know where your blind-spots are. They will also know exactly what to do about it. Nobody becomes great alone. There is no point in reinventing the wheel when a coach can simply hand one to you.

Ultimately, it will take work and it will take time but the better foundation you lay when you define your goal the faster you will achieve what you desire. Greatness looks different depending on who you are and what you want out of life but we all have the ability to achieve it.

Question: What does greatness look like to you? Let me know in the comments below. Bonus; put the first 3 steps you are going to take to achieve that goal.