I’m an Iowa State sports fan and many have said throughout the years that we are loyal fans, fans that stick by our teams when we are winning and when we are losing. Unfortunately, in the area of football, losing is more often the norm than not. We are in a tough conference and a lot is expected, you can’t just come close, you must win and with that expectation, I was sad to see Paul Rhoads leave as our head football coach this past month.
A new coach is in town, Matt Campbell is his name. He is young, in fact, the youngest coach in the Big 12 conference. I initially wasn’t overly impressed, and I admittedly judged him on his age. How could someone this young be the one, the one to help our football team celebrate victories instead of another losing season? With some reluctance, I watched the press conference, and my heart changed. Four words rang loud and clear, he said, “Greatness is a choice”. I could see the leader within him and I believed every word.
Greatness is a choice, not just for our football team, but it applies to ALL of us in ALL areas of our lives. It applies to our relationships, careers, finances, health, and our spiritual lives. If we want to be great then we must do the work to be great…every day. The problem is, to be great takes discipline and this is where too many consciously or unconsciously decide to settle for good.
So how can you move from good to great? To begin with, if you are on a team, everyone must be motivated to be great. Everyone must be willing to do the work to be great. Everyone must be held to greatness standards. Here is the hard part, the leader must be willing to let those go that are performing…good. To some this sounds crazy, because most of us accept that good is good…right? But when you are looking for your team to be great, only greatness can be accepted…nothing less.
In our personal lives, we must decide which areas of our lives we want to be good at and in what areas we want to be great. Ask yourself these questions:
- Do I want to have great relationships? (With my spouse, children, friends, co-workers, etc.)
- Do I want to have great financial security?
- Do I want to have great health?
- Do I want to have a great spiritual live?
I’m going to go out on a limb now and guess that most of you picked great for most of these areas, but let me challenge you a little more with a question. What does great mean to you in each of those areas?
Here is the secret sauce in finding greatness… YOU must define what greatness means to you and you must build your greatness from there. You must do the work to achieve greatness every day, which means you must find the time in your schedule to create your greatness. When you define your goal and make it a priority, you can become great. Without this focus and dedication, you will remain only good.
Too many people wait until they are having relationship issues to work on their relationships. Too many people wait until retirement is right around the corner to achieve great financial security. Too many people wait until after the health scare to start healthier habits and too many people wait until after a life changing event to grow in their spiritual lives. Do these people achieve greatness? Maybe some do, but wouldn’t it be easier to make the decision to start working towards greatness now? After all, It is your choice.
Share with me what areas of your life you are striving for greatness!
– See more at: http://loveyourlife2.com/blog/2015/12/07/greatness-is-a-choice#sthash.BiHHxezy.dpuf
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