Journey to Greatness Tip #9
It’s not about standing for or against something, it’s about being real.
Being able to state where you stand and being open to listening to what others have to say. You need to be able to adjust when necessary, not becoming stagnate or rigid within your own ideals and beliefs.
Too often as we get a “following” of any kind, we feel the pressure of a responsibility to those followers weighing us down to the point of becoming a caricature of who we once were and what we stood for. We need to own the pressure of people who are looking up to us. The first step is to simply breathe. Instead of going “oak”, not wanting to let anyone down, we need to go “willow”, having the adaptability to shift, change, and flow. We convince ourselves if we “just fake it until we make it”, then we can be there for those looking up to us. Unfortunately, if we are not careful, instead of making it, we become fake.
The problem begins when we take on an irrational feeling of being responsible for those who are following us or looking up to us for guidance. Remember that it was your natural sense of responsibly that earned you the respect of your “followers” in the first place.
You, being you, and committing to being the best version or yourself will always put you on your individual journey to greatness. It’s irrelevant whether the world recognizes it or not. We end up on our journey to greatness by being passionately driven to follow our true natures, whether that makes you a world leader or a boy/girl scout leader, it is still your path of greatness because both are leaders. We, as society, put what is, oftentimes, an arbitrarily less than or greater than value on the gifts and talents of others.
We judge how those gifts and talents play out in achieving how “great” your greatness is. For example, a watchmaker who has the gift to intricately put the pieces together to fix a watch is not as highly regarded as surgeon who operates on hearts. If we look at the natural skill sets involved with both, the watchmaker and heart surgeon, you will see there are many similarities in fixing both kinds of a ticker.
Forget about the title, because it’s not important. The title cannot make people want to respect or follow you; it certainly won’t make them give you the extra 110% you need during clinch time. It is your unique personality, your special gifts, your rare talents, and YOU that will drive others to rally around you and follow you while you do what it takes to make things happen.
If ever you feel like you’re starting to buckle under the responsibility of your own greatness, for whatever reason, whether it be people looking up to you or just people looking at you, keep this definition of responsibility in mind:
Responsibility- the ability to respond, not react. Be yourself; respond from that place of you and everything will be fine.
