Achieving greatness is something that is hard to define. What
makes a person great is often highly personal, and one person’s idea of
greatness may not be someone else’s. There are, however, concrete ways for you
to get started on achieving your dreams and goals. As the Chinese philosopher
Lao Tzu once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Decide on your greatness goal. “Being great” is such an undefinable thing
that you have to choose something concrete to work with. Think about your
strengths and your areas for improvement, and decide on a goal that makes sense
for your personality. Research shows that you’re most likely to achieve a goal
if it’s something you want and something you’re willing to work hard to achieve.
- You could decide that you want to be become a great author writing beautiful works of literature, or an investigative journalist exposing the darkest aspects of the human psyche. Or you could decide you want to help make change and get involved in politics or become an activist.
- Try writing down your dream goals first. Don’t worry yet about making them specific and achievable; that will come soon! As famous philosopher and writer Henry David Thoreau once said, “If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them.”
- In a commencement speech at Stanford University, inventor and entrepreneur Steve Jobs said that he asked himself the following question every morning: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” If the answer was "No," he changed things. This could be a good question to ask yourself, too.
Frame the problem
properly. Now that you
have your list of the great things you want to accomplish, you need to frame
the problem of achieving them so that you don't get overwhelmed. It's easy to
feel like you can't achieve your goals, especially when you're just starting
out. Frame your goals so that your goal is something you’re working toward,
rather than something you’re trying to move away from. You’re more likely to
achieve your goals when they’re positive!
- Viktor Frankl, who survived a Nazi concentration camp, said that his survival came through the freedom “to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.” Because he refused to allow the Nazis to take away his freedom of choice, Frankl was able to reframe a seemingly impossible situation into one where he had control over himself -- something that he believed allowed him to survive.
- Stephen Hawking, the eminent theoretical physicist and cosmologist, was diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a type of motor neuron disease, just after he turned 21. He was given little more than two years to live. Instead of giving in to the problem, Hawking says that two things inspired him to work even harder: realizing that others were going through even worse things, and recognizing that he might only have a limited time to achieve his goals.
Make your goal
specific. Once you’ve
framed your goals in a positive way, make sure you can achieve them. The best
way to do this is to make your goals as specific as possible. Setting a
specific goal makes you more likely to not only achieve what you want, but to
achieve more happiness in general!
- For example: Imagine that one of the goals you have written down is “be Batman.” Instead of saying to yourself, “Batman isn't a real person, therefore I can't be him,” ask yourself what can you do to be like Batman. Determine what, specifically, about Batman you’d like to emulate, and set your goals to follow through on those values.
- Some options: Dress up as Batman and work in a children's cancer ward. Help people who are poverty-stricken by donating money and/or time to a local soup kitchen. Become a police officer (you get to wear a costume and, hopefully, you get to help keep the streets free of crime).
Use positive
thinking. Visualization
techniques can help you achieve greatness. Studies have shown that
visualization can effective in improving athletic and academic performance.
Many athletes (such as Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods) have used visualization to
help them win boxing matches, races, even golf tournaments. There are two basic
types of visualization, outcome visualization and process
visualization, and you should use them together for best results:
- Outcome visualization is the process of imagining yourself achieving your desired goal. This visualization should be as detailed as possible and should use all of your senses: imagine who is there with you as you achieve your goal, what it smells and sounds like, what you’re wearing, where you are. You could even draw a picture or create a detailed “vision board” to help you create this mental visualization.
- Process visualization involves imagining all the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal. Think about each action you will take leading up to accomplishing your goal of greatness. For example, if your goal is “be Batman (for a children’s hospital),” you could think about what you need to do at each step: find a costume, contact hospitals in the area, practice your Batman voice, etc.
Use positive
action. While positive
visualization is very effective, it must be coupled with positive action. You
have to actively work towards the goals you have set, rather than simply enjoy
the thought of achieving them. This is where process visualization pays off:
once you have envisioned each step you need to take to achieve a goal, it will
be easier to actually take those steps.
- If you're looking to be a writer, for instance, write every single day, even if only for a paragraph. Join a local writers’ group, take some writing classes at a community center, enter contests and get your writing out there for other people to see. Ask all of your friends for feedback. And, as world-famous writer Stephen King reminds us, stay positive even when it’s hard: “Stopping a piece of work just because it’s hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.”
- If you want to be a great philanthropist, start small. If you don't have much money, donate your time to a food bank or local charitable organization. Teach language classes or tutor under-privileged children. It doesn't have to be a grand sweeping gesture of eliminating hunger worldwide. Making a difference in just one person’s life tends to start a positive domino effect.
Examine others' success stories. You'll need to look and see what made other
people, especially people who are doing the things you're aiming to do, succeed
in their chosen path. There are often threads of similarities that run through
these stories.
- For example, athlete Jesse Owens, who won 4 gold medals in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin, was one of 10 children. He early on discovered a passion for running and practiced before school, since he often worked after school. Owens had to suffer through horrible racism to compete in the races both in the U.S. and in Germany, but managed to completely destroy the propaganda of “Aryan racial superiority” in the 1936 Olympics.
- Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman to fly into space, was originally a textile factory worker. She had pursued an interest in sky-diving and it was this interest that helped her get chosen from 400 applicants. Tereshkova had the tenacity to go through all the intensive training that was required, and after her flight she earned a doctorate in engineering.
