Didn't realize how long its been since I've posted in this guy, more frequent updates in the future!!
But without further ado, my End of 2015 Post.
One thing that has been on my kind lately is greatness. The "best of the best."
People who's work is described as being "Perfection, brilliant, awe-inspiring, pure visceral amazing" (It goes by many names). The ones that people look up to and get inspiration from. These people who seemed to have cracked open this unimaginable plane of existence and have made it into "Greatness Town," the place where all the great people go and hang out and eat the best and fluffiest Cheddar Bay Biscuits. And I've always wondered...
Why are they there, and I'm here? Why am I so far away from them? Why am I not great? Why do I suck? How come I'm not seated next to them? Among the stars I admire?
As I've been deconstructing this, the answer seems to be a better question:
Why do you think yourself not great?
Well, not now, but you can be, and will be, if that's what you want.
There is nothing separating us, the greats and the "rest of us". Status is an illusion. So are pedestals that we (and critics) put them on. For some reason we as people love to glamorize these people as idols, and worship them as demigods, people who have some how found a way to transcend time and space to be deemed part of the A-List of life. This isn't to downplay their credibility at all, but for some reason we "the underlings" have forgotten the key reality that for whatever reason, isn't glamorized by People Magazine or Variety or lampooned by irrelevant publications I really don't want to bring myself to mention.
They are human. Just like you. Just like me.
These people, while great, are full of their own human experiences, and are just as human and flawed and insecure as we are.
They are human. Just like you. Just like me.
These people, while great, are full of their own human experiences, and are just as human and flawed and insecure as we are.
The only real difference is that they've done and experienced the things that we've been wanting to achieve for far longer than we have. Some are predispositioned to have these things come to them more easily. Usually that's the rare case, but even if, with perseverance, that predisposition becomes irrelevant, as the amount of work they put in over time desensitizes any obstacles and negative feelings they have towards their work.
We are all capable of becoming the Tina Fey's, the Daniel Day-Lewis's, the Christopher Nolan's of our own respective crafts, but in order for that to happen, we have to see that. We have to know, to see, our capabilities. Our potential. Our Greatness.
It is in all of is. Innately. Once we know that, the biggest obstacles then become, ironically, ourselves. Our fears, our insecurities, our voices that say can't, should or won't.
It is in all of is. Innately. Once we know that, the biggest obstacles then become, ironically, ourselves. Our fears, our insecurities, our voices that say can't, should or won't.
This is where greatness becomes one of the greatest human contradictions:
In order to achieve something bigger than us, we have to transcend our humanity, by owning our humanity.
In order to achieve something bigger than us, we have to transcend our humanity, by owning our humanity.
The more we care about something, the more resistance we come up against. Because we are so passionate about it, because we feel that this is our purpose, the reason for our very existence, our resistance against that is monumental. Our fears try to keep us in the safe, our critics tell us everything they can to keep us in the safety we've known for so long. In short, our egos hold us back from greatness. Once you identify how your ego is holding you back, it can be dealt with.
Given these things, the trick is realizing that your potential for greatness is born out of your relationship the unknown. What you do when you come up against something you fear, will be what defines you.
This is how people live their lives. When they are dictated by fear, they live in reaction to what life throws at them. They get pushed around, without any purpose or intention, into things that aren't aligned with who they are. They get jobs they don't want. Into relationships they don't want. Lives that feel like they're living another person's life.
If something that we know we are drawn to something purposeful that we are unsure but passionate about, then we are really attached to it. Because it matters so much to us, regardless of what we say. Since we don't know how its going to end up in the future, or how the journey will happen, our anxiety rises. Our future becomes unclear. And we cower at how large our dream is.
But If we realize that this is something that really matters to us, the we know the pursuit of this is all that makes sense, and that we're willing to stand up for that, Then the final element we needto push us into the plane of greatness is this.
Faith.
Not in the bibilical sense, but faith in self. Trusting in that part of ourselves that says this matters, this is something that has to happen.
Now, I'm not a man of God, but there is this quality I have noticed in the people who have deep faith. They believe in something bigger than themselves, that they are here on this plane to serve something higher than them. They have a purpose. This allows them to tap into a bigger energy, a bigger purposeful self if you will, and validates everything about them. It validates their physicality, their psychology, their love, their passions, right down to every movement they take, and every word they say. It speaks through them. Because they live with Intention, with Purpose.
This is why our mindset and perceptions of our world are so important. You can call it intention, the universe or god, or whatever, but regardless of our spirituality, one thing is absolutely fact:
The way you see yourself relative to the world will reflect the amount of greatness you will achieve in your lifetime.
The more faith you have in yourself and your worth and your talents, trust in yourself, and remove any blocks that you have to yourself, you allow your greatness to shine through. All of it. Where it comes from isn't the point, allowing it to flow freely out of you, unleashed onto this plane of existence, is.
Maybe your greatness isn't polished right now, and you misstep, and you fail, but because you have seen and disconnected from the critics and the judges the past and the ego within yourself which holds it back, the growth of it becomes exponential. Unbridled. Electric. Visceral. You self correct quicker, you see things more clearly, you absorb more totally, you understand more fully. You grow.
And when you allow your greatness to shine, when you let it do its thing, People can feel it. All around you. "He's on fire!" "She's killing it" "There's something about him..." they'll say. It is something that is flowing out of you and spilling onto this plane of existence and infecting everyone around you with inspiration and wonderment. This is what inspires others. What brings people out of their funks. Their depression. Their self hatred. Because you've seen what you're capable of in this life, it helps them see what they're capable in this life.
This is what greatness feels like.
And once you live in that mindset, that energy for a long time, as with anything, it begins to become unconsciously inherent. It becomes you. And because it comes from the deepest parts of yourself, it is you. This is what wholeness feels like, completeness, a sense of total and complete self. This is greatness.
So. For 2016, and the rest of your life, get out of your pathway to greatness. Let it shine through you and do the thing it needs to do.
The map is already there inside you, you just have to look inside and see it for yourself. And once you start doing that, your seat next to your heroes will materialize. You just have to claim it for yourself. Just like those Cheddar Bay Biscuits.
Z.
Z.
