Friday, December 19, 2008

How to motivate yourself to greatness

There is a drop of greatness in every man. How true? When you think of greatness, what comes to your mind? We all have the capacity to be great. But it is not everyone that will be great, because it is only a minority that put into action the habits and the lifestyle of the truly great. So, how do you motivate yourself to greatness?

G -Give up your obsession
Achieving greatness comes with a down payment. You can’t get something for nothing. Greatness is built on the virtue of sacrifice.

You have to be willing to pay the price of greatness in order to enjoy the prize of greatness. What are you willing to forfeit so as to savor the sweetness of greatness?

Remember, there are no shortcuts to anyplace worth going. Greatness is a function of sacrifice.

Keep it in mind that it is absolutely impossible to rise to the top in any sphere of life without sweating it out. Greatness comes with a price tag attached. Are you willing to pay?

R –Relationship
To achieve greatness, you have to be a people’s person. Truth is that you will be welcome to the highest realm of greatness in life based on the invitation of another. You cannot make yourself great.

You can become so good at what you do, yet to be great you need someone or a group of people. You must leverage on quality relationships. If you must achieve greatness, you must use the strength and influence of others.

Good relationships are more than just the icing on the cake; in fact they are the cake - the very substance you need, to shoot yourself to the height of greatness.

Every successful sales man knows selling is 15 percent product knowledge and 85 percent people knowledge. So be a people’s person!

E –Excellence
Ever wondered why Microsoft’s computational software is termed “Excel?” The word “Excel” is derived from excellence. At the time it was introduced into the market, it was better than any other computational software.

Excellence connotes the quality of making something extremely good. To be great, endorse your work with excellence and be willing to give your best. Constantly, be better than the best. Great people refrain from mediocrity and embrace excellence.

A –Add value
Michael Faraday, Albert Einstein, Isaac Newton, Michael Jackson, Williams Shakespeare. Their value-adding mentality stands them out.

Adding value is about making something better than you met it. Bill Gates dreamt of a computer on every desk, run by his Microsoft operating system. The ease with which we get our documents prepared, the speed at which graphics are displayed, can be attributed to the value-adding mentality of Bill Gates.

Cultivate and apply this principle, and you are on your march to greatness.

T –Tenacity
Never let go of your object of pursuits. To achieve greatness you must have a burning desire and a firm resolution to hang in there come what may.

As a young man, Louis Armstrong applied to a music school. At his audition, he performed poorly and was told he does not have what it takes to be a musician. Feeling rejected, he cried all day. But he resolved to his friends: “I know there is music in me and they cannot keep it out.” Louis Armstrong went on to become a jazz legend.

What made the difference? Yes, his tenacity. It is summed up as follows: Never ever give up! Greatness is achieving the unachievable. See you at the top!

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