At times we hear an inspiring message that we should accept and live our greatness. But then something inside us says, “Wait. I’m not that great.” Or perhaps some us have a voice like mine that says, “No one is great except God.” We also hear other voices that tell us to not be self-seeking, narcissistic egotist.
So we feel smug and step back into average. We settle for mediocre. Maybe we’re an awesome musician, but we keep it a secret. Maybe we’re the world’s greatest teacher, but we keep our teaching abilities to ourself. Maybe we can clearly see the path our organization needs to take to be successful, but we don’t want to be annoying so we keep quiet. We don’t want to be pretentious.
A part of it is that likely inside we are afraid people won’t like us if we stand out and make others jealous. But we get to justify our plain life by believing we are being humble.
The truth, though, is that we aren’t doing anyone any favors by living in the land of average. There is no virtue in hiding our awesomeness.
Most of the great technological advances we are so accustomed to seeing everyday are the result of someone living in the land of great. Someone had to figure out how to make an airplane. Someone had to figure out how to produce and make use of electricity. If these folks said, “I don’t want to be pretentious. Maybe I should just quit now before I make someone look bad,” what would life be like today?
If we approach it right, Greatness and Humility aren’t at odds with each other. We don’t have to come across as a jerk to live in the land of great. We don’t even need to hide our greatness. It’s not bragging if it’s true and we are sharing with a spirit of celebration.
Our calling is to live to our full potential in the land of great for the benefit of others. When we live our legacy, we will leave a meaningful impact on the world. We aren’t helping anyone by skipping out and playing hooky on our calling.
What is something that’s great about you?
