Tag Archives: greatness

Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible.

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Greatness and nearsightedness are incompatible. Meaningful achievement depends on lifting one’s sight and pushing toward the horizon.

—Daniel Pink, New York Times Best-Selling Author

Image from Unsplash by Mohamed Nohassi

What qualities and characteristics make an individual, organization, or even a country great?

Look back over your life to those individuals who stood out and lead those around them to a better future.

Read documents they wrote or listen to their speeches to see how they shared their values and visions for bettering our world.

Notice how their visions became beacons for others so that they could pursue greatness together.

EXERCISE:

Where have you been a bit nearsighted in your personal and professional pursuits?

In what ways can and will you lift your sights higher and push beyond the current horizons of your life?

“The inner life of any great thing will be incomprehensible to me until I develop and deepen an inner life of my own.”

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“The inner life of any great thing will be incomprehensible to me until I develop and deepen an inner life of my own.”

—Parker J Palmer, Founder/Sr. Partner Emeritus, Center for Courage & Renewal

Image from Unsplash by Content Pixie

Examine all the greatness you see around you.

Who are the great people? Beyond the people, where are the places and things in your world that you consider extraordinary and wonderful?

If your list is very long, Parker Palmer would probably applaud you for doing the important and often difficult work of personal inquiry and introspection. By doing this inner work and seeing more deeply into our hearts, minds, and souls, we can find our own greatness and thus recognize it when we look to the outer world.

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways can and will you examine and reflect more deeply on your inner world to discover new levels of your own greatness?

With this increased awareness and clarity, look again and again at the people, places, and things around you, to embrace and delight in your wondrous world.

Please reply to this post and let me know what you discover!

 

“Greatness comes by beginning something that doesn’t end with you.”

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“Greatness comes by beginning something that doesn’t end with you.”

—Robin Sharma, Author of The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari series

Image of the Great Wall of China

Image from Unsplash by Hanson Lu

The other night a close friend of ours placed a video call to me from The Great Wall of China. She was overcome with delight as she shared this 4,000 mile long structure that took about a thousand years to build.

Some other great human achievements include:

  • The Great Pyramid at Giza
  • Machu Pichu
  • The Taj Mahal
  • The Empire State Building
  • The Panama Canal
  • Man’s Landing on the Moon

EXERCISE:

What other great human achievements can you think of? What efforts and achievements have you begun and contributed to so far in your life? What personal and professional projects are you planning or beginning that will leave a legacy well into the future?

Friday Review Greatness

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FRIDAY REVIEW: GREATNESS

How do you define greatness in yourself and others? Here are a few greatness-related posts you may have missed. Click the links to read the full message.

 

“Your greatness is measured by your horizons.”

 

 

 

 

“The seeds of greatness grow faster in the hearts of those doing work they love.”

 

 

 

“We discover greatness within once we learn to cultivate and celebrate it in others.”

 

 

 

Friday Review Inspiration

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Friday Review: Inspiration

What inspires you? Here are a few inspiration-related posts you may have missed. Click on the link to read the full message.

QC #976a

 

“Your greatness is measured by your horizons.”

 

 

 

 

QC #1120b

 

“It’s choice – not chance – that determines your destiny.”

 

 

 

QC #1120c

 

“Inspiration usually comes during work, not before it.”

 

 

 

 

discover greatness within

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“We discover greatness within once we learn to cultivate and celebrate it in others.”

—Brendon Burchard, American Motivational Author

Image from lenramsay.com

Image from lenramsay.com

Being a coach is an extraordinarily rewarding profession. Each day I have the opportunity to encourage and support the greatness of others, personally and professionally.

I find helping those I work with do the same in their communities a tremendously satisfying way of living and working.

As more members of our communities operate this way, we generate a “coaching culture” in which individuals  and organizations thrive.

EXERCISE:

Where and in what ways can you more fully experience your own greatness through the generous and passionate support of others in your worlds?

Feel free to reach out to me directly if you would like some assistance in this effort.

seeds of greatness

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“The seeds of greatness grow faster in the hearts of those doing work they love.”

—Brendon Burchard, American Motivational Author

Image of hand holding seeds of greatness

Image from Flickr by Elis Alves

I recently read Adam Grant’s book, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success.

Adam is an award-winning researcher, and Wharton’s highest rated professor. Among the many important forces he discovered through his extensive research is the critical elements of relationships, and their impact on success.

He discovered that people operate as takers, matchers, or givers, resulting in various degrees of success based on whether the focus is on oneself or others.

Giving, it turns out, especially in work that people truly enjoy and makes a meaningful contribution, seems to be most highly correlated with the greatest levels of success.

EXERCISE:

How and in what ways can you start or do more of the work you love, so that you reap an even greater harvest in your professional and personal lives?

“Your greatness is measured by your horizons.”

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“Your greatness is measured by your horizons.”

– Michelangelo, Renaissance sculptor and painter

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Image from Flickr by The Nick Page.

When was the last time you watched the weather report on the evening news? In addition to temperature, humidity, and chance of precipitation, they sometimes include “visibility,” which is the distance one can see clearly toward the horizon.

Consider not only how far you can see into the distance but also what you can see. The inspirational and vivid goals within your horizons, as Michelangelo suggests, can be the fuel of greatness.

Exercise:

Imagine you have the capacity to expand your vision’s clarity and distance, viewing your personal horizons through a telescope or binoculars.

What horizons do you see that will be the measure of your greatness in the days and weeks ahead?

#28: “Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions…”

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“…Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

– Mark Twain, author and humorist

It seems to be everywhere. Maybe it is in the water supply, or even in the air we breathe. I’m referring to the need we have to be right, and to make others with different beliefs wrong.

Some people get a huge pay off from belittling others, and do not see the high cost they pay in dysfunctional relationships and toxic communities.

When we make a small but fundamental shift to a “try it on” attitude, we can find the good and valuable in what others think and have to say.

Exercise:

Who have you been making wrong or belittling lately?

By looking for what’s great about them, you will find your own greatness.

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