Choose Greatness

Happy Friday Friends!

I hope and trust this post finds you all having a great day on this beautiful Saturday afternoon in my Sweet Home Alabama! :)

I want to start off this week with sharing a few excerpts with y'all from The Leadership Gap: What Gets Between You And Your Greatness by Lolly Daskal. It is a great book and I highly recommend it to all of you! :)

"Only when we discover the gaps in our leadership, and confront our shortcomings, can we become truly great leaders."

"Being real is the first step to being great.

As humans we will never be perfect, but we can be the best versions of ourselves."

"Your talents are a gift, but your character by contrast is about your choice and determination. Never settle for being an average person - you were made for greatness."

"Every single one of us has the chance and the choice to choose to stand in our greatness or not.

What will you do?"

It is that last quote - "Every single one of us has the chance and the choice to choose to stand in our greatness or not. What will you do?" - that slapped me upside the head like a well placed 2 x 4. If we can all choose to stand in our greatness, why in the heck wouldn't we?!?! :)

Let's unpack this a little bit. Maybe you are sitting there thinking, "I don't have greatness within me." I would gently push back, Friend, and simply say, perhaps you should redefine greatness. Greatness does not mean the best, the champion or the winner - though those things certainly may happen when you pursue your greatness. No, the greatness we speak of here is far greater than worldly standards or trophies. The greatness we speak of here is about fulfilling your potential, about becoming all you are capable of becoming, leaving no room for coulda, woulda, or shoulda. It is complete. It is the very best version of you. Yes Friend, that IS within you! :)

Or, perhaps, you are sitting there thinking, "But I have so many faults." Welcome to the club! We all do! This is really the whole point of the Leadership Gap. We all - I said all! - have these great attributes. We have these great qualities within us that enable and empower us to do great things. Like with anything, however, when we go too far within that quality, it becomes a liability. And what Lolly basically challenges us with is this; do you want to pursue your greatness bad enough that you are willing to look inside and find where your weaknesses are and then, do you have the courage to work on them? That's it...are you, and I, willing to learn and grow so we can become all we are capable of becoming, so we can walk into our greatness. The good is there. The bad is there. Greatness awaits. The choice is ours! :)

So, Friends, my challenge and encouragement to each and every one of us is that we will choose to pursue our greatness - the very best version of ourselves. Yes, it is going to take honesty, confidence in who we are and where we are going, and bravery to actually walk it out. And it is going to have to be a daily decision. The decisions and commitments we make today have to be made again tomorrow, and then the next day, and the next, and the... The decision will have to be made on days that we don't "feel" great or "feel" like pursuing our greatness. This is not a one and done type decision and it is a journey without final destination. Until the day we breathe our last breath, we will be learning, growing, and pursuing our greatness. It is not a journey for the weak of mind or the weak of spirit. It will be a hard fought battle that will lead to beautiful places, touch countless lives, and leave each one of us with a deep, abiding peace knowing that we have done everything we could do to become all that we were capable of becoming. What a blessed, beautiful journey! :)

Before wrapping this up, I want to share a few more quotes I came across as I studied pursuing our individual greatness this week.

"Successful and unsuccessful people do not vary greatly in their abilities. They vary in their desires to reach their potential." - John C. Maxwell

"You can be good, or you can be great. Why not strive for greatness?" - Roxie Fine

"God has planted greatness in you. Let today be the beginning of a great adventure as you step into the gifts he's given you." - Joyce Meyer

"Never underestimate the power of dreams and the influence of the human spirit. We are all the same in this notion: The potential for greatness lives within each one of us." - Wilma Rudolph

Please, choose to pursue your greatness! :)

Please don't hesitate to contact me if there is ever anything I can do for you or your family. I will always help you any way I can. You can reach me at kevin@whatwillyourinfluencebe.com.

Have a great day, a wonderful weekend, please cherish your precious families, and please stay well.

Kev