Discovering Your Greatness

By Anne Sullivan 

The Olympic Games begin this week in Paris and once again the greatest athletes in the world will be the center of our attention.

In sports, it is often easy to identify the great ones. The numbers tell the story. The greatest have faster times, more hits, longer leaps or higher scores than the rest. It makes it easy for us to identify the best.

In music, greatness is usually more subjective. Who was the greatest composer, Bach or Beethoven? Or Mozart? We can point to the numbers of pieces written, or the age of their earliest achievements or the enduring nature of their work, but in the end, “the greatest” is a matter of opinion.

Whether your hero is Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart or Simone Biles, greatness is something we can all strive for. It’s not just for the select few who are the best in the world. Greatness is within all of us.

Here are a few ideas to think about.

1. Records are made to be broken. An old saying, but still true. For forty-eight years, Larisa Latynina, was “the greatest.” A former Soviet gymnast, she held the title of the world’s most decorated Olympian since 1964, when she won her 18th Olympic medal. When Kichale Phelps surpassed her record, she said she didn’t look on Phelps’s achievement with bitterness, but rather with congratulations and a wish: “That he doesn’t look back into the past at his records, but remains a normal, good, kind person. Because that’s the most important thing in life.”
   
   When anyone sets a record, it immediately sets a challenge as well. It not only sets a new bar of achievement, but presents a new opportunity for others who follow. There is now a new goal, a place for them to set their sights. And if that goal is yours, go for it!

2. Greatness is not unique. Despite Muhammad Ali’s nickname, there is not only one “The Greatest.” There is a practically endless list of possibilities for greatness, even in a small area of endeavor. Guinness World Records 2011 has 288 pages of world records declaring the latest “greatests.” Surely there is room in the universe for one more.
3. Your greatness lies in doing what you love. For most of us, world-class achievement is not our primary goal. Most of us simply desire to do something well, to learn something new, to be a positive force in our sphere of influence. Developing our individual strengths and making that strength our contribution to others is in itself a great act. Find what you love, do it with passion and discover your greatness.