RazzWorks

To strive for greatness has to be your own personal choice. No one can give it to you. You can not buy it or inherit it. You and only you can choose to go for it. The wonderful thing about it is that it does not matter who you are or where you come from. If it’s something you want to go after then there is nothing, absolutely nothing that can stop you from doing so. It doesn’t matter what your current status in life is, or how rich or poor you are. You have the option to choose it for yourself.

So what should you consider when attempting to strive for greatness? Well, let’s take a look. Like most things in life, there are general guidelines and suggestions you should follow. Let’s dive in and check ’em out.

Now if you’re not sure where or what you should focus on. Not a problem, here are some basic things you can start on. You can always choose to place something else as a higher priority when something comes to you that you realize is something you truly want to strive for greatness with. Your personal wellness could be physical as in working on exercise, getting fit, and so on. On the other hand, it could be your health, as in eating healthier.

Another good starting point could be super caring towards family and friends. With this, you may choose either to spend more quality time with them or you could work on appreciating them more and expressing to them how much you care for them. These may seem like basic typical things that just about anyone can do, but that’s because they are. At least now you can’t say you can’t think of anything to work on. Sometimes a person just needs a push in the right direction to get started, so consider these suggestions as a little nudge from me.

If you want to keep digging that’s ok. Whether it be because you like a wealth of information, or perhaps you’re at a point in your life where you want to get serious because you realize life is short and you don’t want to waste any more of it on trivial things, then keep on reading.

DECISIONS AND CHOICES

To begin, let’s start with something a little easy; the physical things you can see and touch, before working on abstract ideas and personal invisible concepts and desires. Consider your everyday physical space and the things and trinkets you’ve collected over time.

When starting out you might want to begin with getting rid of the subpar things in your life and keep only the things that represent something important to you or represent what your true values are. Keep things that give you inspiration, motivation, and encouragement so they will help to spur on your willingness to strive for greatness in your life.

Our lives are filled with many little insignificant things. Much of our lives are spent obtaining things that are ok, good enough, or pretty good, and end up not having anything really awesome. When I say awesome I simply mean things that have meaning to you personally.

For example; a medal/ribbon/trophy/certificate is better in place of some ornament that you bought at a cheap store, yardsale, or market to decorate a space in your home with. It’s better for your mental wellness to have a few extraordinary, awesome, things rather than tons of inferior, looks nice, stuff that you can almost ignore because it doesn’t really have any meaning to you.

If you also have a place you consider your personal space you’re best to keep it simple by getting rid of any junk and crap you may have cluttering up your space. If you have stuff you haven’t touched or used in over a year and it has no particular meaning to you clear it out. Make this space your power space. You want only the things that inspire, encourage, or make the space as peaceful and relaxing as possible.

Making decisions on the physical things in your life is the easy part, that’s because you can see them in front of you and make a permanent final choice. If you get rid of some things, it’s done and over with. However, the hard part is with the things in your life you decided to do, as in place your time and energy on. It can be hard because you continually have to work on it and keep going. It’s easy to slip back into old habits, or something comes up and the next thing you know, you’ve completely given up obtaining that goal or skill, or character change.

Nonetheless, if you’re going to strive for greatness, you need to take the time to think about what you really want in your life. Something you really, really want to be great at. Now put all the time and energy you can into it. Keep making yourself the best you can possibly be at it. Strive for greatness.

Now it can mean, but does not necessarily mean, to make it your career. If what you want is something you could possibly strive for greatness with and turn into a career that is awesome, however, it won’t be possible for everybody. However, it can be a hobby you can be passionate about. The most important thing with whatever it is you want to strive for greatness with, it has to be for you and you only. In other words, if you’re doing it for the benefit of someone else, it’s not worth it.

Every year on New Year’s eve people from all around decide what they will do for the coming year as their new year’s resolution. Perhaps you should think ahead of time and pick a particular part of yourself or your life to focus on for the whole year. For example, you could choose your health this year. Instead of choosing a single item like quitting smoking or losing 50lbs. Try instead something you can slowly get better and better at.

Say you decide this year I’m going to focus on my physical health. Then start out small like going for a walk and working your way up. Perhaps you decide next year to work on building a healthier eating pattern. This allows you to either work on how often, or how much you eat. Or maybe you introduce fruit into your diet.

Another example of a broader thing to focus on is communication skills. With this, you work on perfecting your speaking ability or work on your listening skills. Basically, you want to take some time ahead and think about what you truly want to work on, family, health, spirituality, learning a new skill, or whatever is important to you.

You never know, with this type of approach it could turn into a life change for the better. It just means it gives you a way to strive for greatness even in your personal life, which increases your commitment to becoming your best with the things you truly want to work on in your life. So if you are the type of person who likes to start working on something different every year. Now you know how to be better prepared for whatever choices you make by planning ahead.

LISTS: TO DO OR NOT TO DO?

Here is something that is hard for most people to do including me. A list of things you choose to no longer work on. It requires you to truly think and evaluate yourself and every little thing you do in your life. Of course, you’ve heard of a to-do list. Well, this is basically the opposite.

There are many things we do in our lives that when it comes right down to it, either it’s wasting our time and it’s just done out of habit, or worse, you do it because it’s just expected of you. You keep doing it because it’s what friends or family want you to do. It’s also can be tough because depending on what it is you’re going to consider stopping, you have to ignore what others might say or think.

Simply think of that one thing you most want to strive for greatness at. Does this other thing perhaps interfere or not contribute to your desire for what you want? If it makes it easier perhaps make a list of things you’re willing to sacrifice. You might be surprised by what kind of things you end up jotting down on your not-to-do list.

To get a true sense of yourself and the possibility of things you can choose from, create a personal ‘all about me’ master list. With creating the list there are many questions you can ask yourself. As for how to jot the information down, that’s not so important. You can do it in point form, full sentences, short notes to represent a thought pattern, or a combination of styles. Just make the list.

You might be wondering what kind of questions should be used. Well just about anything that helps you to think of all the different areas of your life and thoughts and wants, and wishes. Some typical questions would include things like strengths, weaknesses, purpose in life, and hobbies. What were the things I enjoyed as a kid? What is it I like to do in my spare time? What are some things that truly make me feel happy?

You want to take some relaxing downtime where you can just sit back and think about everything in your life and about yourself. When you do this you could possibly find something you have a deep passion for that you never even realized. Jot everything down. There is no limit to how long your ‘all about me’ master list can be.

With creating an ‘all about me’ master list you want to be as honest and truthful with yourself as possible. With that said, it leads to a possibility of realizing there could be things about your life that are not as important as you initially thought they were.

There are two common ways they might appear. 1. you’re good at something but you discover it doesn’t truly make you happy. 2. You believed you really wanted it however never seemed to be able to make it mature into anything real.

With the first type of realization. It does not matter how many years you have been doing it. It does not matter how educated you are in that area. It does not matter how impressed others are with your ability in this area. There is a realization that sometimes creeps in when a person is taking a true genuine look into themselves. They discover they don’t enjoy themselves, or there is no challenge and therefore they have been just drifting through because it was easy and comfortable. Or they have been doing it because it pleased others but really doesn’t do anything for them.

With the second type of realization. It does not matter how many times you tried again. Or how many years you have been picking at the idea. You believed you really wanted it, you made it a goal or an ambition to go for. However, you kept missing the mark, never able to fully make it all the way. So now you start asking yourself why is that. You slowly realize that perhaps you truly deep down don’t want it as bad as you first thought. By the way, if it happens to you, that is ok.

Why is it ok to decide maybe you were wrong? Well for two reasons. 1. You know you’re being truly honest with yourself, and now you know you’ve been wasting your time. Being able to accept the truth about yourself can be a real game changer. This brings us to number 2. You are now able to pick something that truly does inspire you to strive for greatness. Finding something that you most positively want to be awesome at, allows you to have a much stronger commitment and desire to carry it out. This is because you are now choosing to do it only for yourself, regardless of what others may think.

Just about everyone procrastinates doing things at one time or another. So if you’re going to procrastinate then plan ahead and know what is ok to procrastinate and what’s not. Now you can use it to your advantage. So, the first thing you want to determine is what is the one thing that matters to you the most. What is the one main thing above all else you really want to strive for greatness at? Even if perchance you are working on different things or areas in your life you want to improve for whatever reason. Pick one that means the most above all others. Now with whatever it is you choose, you make it your top priority.

Ok now, this is where positive procrastination comes in. Everything else other than your number one choice can get downsized, ignored, or delayed, but never your number one thing you want to strive for greatness the most with. It becomes the one you consider your highest prize. As things change in your life which they tend to do, you might have to make compromises or sacrifices but that number one thing that means the most will remain. In other words, it would have to be something major to happen for you to let it slip or worst to fall to the wayside.

Now I shouldn’t have to say this however I will anyway just in case you didn’t think of the obvious. The things that are not important to you personally, are the things you allow yourself to procrastinate on first. These things tend to be things that you would perhaps like to work on however if it doesn’t get done, it’s probably not going to bother you much because it really isn’t a major concern for you.

Once you have determined or decided on what you want to strive for greatness at, get to it. Start immediately. Whatever it is you have chosen now is the time to take action. Not next year, month, week, or tomorrow. Now. Be consistently working at it.

It’s not about speed or pace, it’s just about going forward. Even if it’s 1% at a time. It’s all about you pursuing that one thing you really really want to be the very best at. Every day do something that leads you even a baby step closer to achieving. To each person that one thing is going to be different.

It does not matter if it has to do with a career, hobby, skill, or something to do with you personally. Maybe you want to be a designer of the best bathroom ever, the greatest butterfly catcher, the fastest sewing needle threader, a rock climber, or a grain of rice artist, it’s whatever you choose for yourself.

So stop reading and tell me what will you strive for greatness at, and go do something about it.

Razz