Greatness

I am about to begin teaching a two-week class on “Acres of Diamonds,” a book originally published in 1890 by Russell Conwell.  (For those of you in the L.A. area, come out to SpiritWorks 260 N. Pass Ave. 91505, 7pm, 6/3/15)  One of the things he talks about is the idea of greatness and how flawed our perceptions of greatness are.

We have a tendency to ascribe greatness to a particular office - i.e. the corner office or a political office.  But, it is not the office that makes someone great.  We look at the outliers of society - the super rich, athletes, famous people - and see greatness there because of their accomplishments.  But, it is not accomplishment that makes someone great.  It is the individual’s recognition of greatness as an inherent part of who they are that leads them to the office or the accolades.  By confusing greatness in this way, it becomes very convenient for us to overlook our own greatness.  

I had a phenomenal example of this today.  I was reading a marketing email for an upcoming workshop that promised a 20x increase in income.  As evidence, the email pointed to a former participant who went from making $100,000 a year to $150,000 each month, in the span of four years.  As soon as I read this I heard a voice in my head, that sounded a awful lot like me, begin to say, “Yeah, well clearly that person was different from everybody else.  I mean, I don’t have the….”  I began to look for reasons why this person was able to make $100,000 a year (forget about $150,000 a month) that I was lacking.  Ever have a similar experience?  Ever see the success of somebody else and start listing all the reasons they were able to achieve it that gave them a leg up and kept you stamped down?

The Truth is that nobody is any more or less great than anybody else.  We are all inherently great.  Greatness is our birthright.  Think about it - if Spirit/God/The Universe is all there is, then by default you must be that!  There is nothing else you could possibly be.  And isn’t the totality of everything ever pretty freakin’ great?!  You bet it is!  And so are you!

Never again let the voice of smallness inside you tell you why you couldn’t possibly be great or do great things.  You already are greatness incarnate!  The only question is, are you going to recognize that in yourself?  Are you going to do anything with the greatness that you already are?  The only thing that is required for greatness is to accept it within yourself now, regardless of what you have or haven’t accomplished.  No office will give you greatness.  No amount of money or fame will convince you that you are great.  Its an inside job and, ironically enough, you already have the corner office.