The S.P.I.R.I.T of greatness – 5

To move to the next level of your life, some relationships at the current level must be jettisoned, in fact, guillotined! Three things characterize those that the Bible regards as fools. The first is that they have no regard for God. The second is their hatred for knowledge and third is that they live without a definite philosophy for living. Evil associations are bound to corrupt good manners. To become significant in life therefore, relationships that are liabilities must of necessity be traded off for ones relevant to your desired outcomes. To become father of many nations, Abraham had to trade off his relationship with his extended family and an environment that he had known for seventy five years of his life!

Suffice it to say however that not every relationship makes it to the trading floor. Our nuclear family is never a trade item. This is because your story of greatness cannot be told with boldness and glee if your spouse and children cannot be your foremost cheerleaders. Your claim to greatness has no value if your children cannot look up to you and desire what you have or have become. Success is of no use if it alienates you from your spouse and makes you a stranger to your children.

Dreams play hide and seek in the labyrinths of what we sometimes consider to be our weaknesses. More often than not, what we call weakness is nothing but inverted strength. The message of our lives is usually coded in the mess we may have hitherto made of it. Greatness is never so much about what you do as it is about why you do it. A sense of convenience simply reinforces our complacency and indulgence in our debilitating status quo. But when we allow a sense of expediency and a destination orientation to possess us, no weakness is strong enough to stop us from attaining our goals. Our routines don’t determine our future. Our perception of our future should determine our routines. I can safely predict your future or your perception of it simply by observing your current daily discipline or routines. Your habits make or break you.

In the pursuit of greatness therefore, we must learn to sacrifice our indulgences. Anyone who desires greatness will not indulge in unproductive habits, no matter how attractive. Only mediocres live by their whims and caprices. Great people’s conducts are determined by their destination. This is the true meaning of discipline. It is about decisions dictated by a predetermined destination. Where there is a destination, it is easy to develop corresponding habits that propel you towards it. We all have whimsical desires that simply gratify our indulgent side. But when you put these side by side with your greatest dreams, it is easy to give up the indulgences. Putting both hands in your pockets as you climb the ladder of success will never get you to the top of that ladder.

A strong value system is the anchor of greatness. Such value system is based on two parameters. The first is the discipline of faith, a strong belief system deriving from a spiritual essence and connection with God that recognizes accountability to a higher authority who actually makes greatness a possibility. Second is the discipline of conduct which is a direct result of our core belief system. We all do what we are!

It is not wrong to watch television, especially if there is good reason to do so. However, people with a vision hardly spend significant time watching television. Most of the people you see on television themselves hardly watch it! Personally, I have been on TV and radio for a while. To be honest with you, I do not remember watching any of those episodes in full after they are aired! It is only recently that I had some of my five-minute radio clips downloaded on my phone to listen to and share with others! Those who do the things that count hardly have the time to count them!

If you find it convenient to spend several hours every day watching one entertainment program or the other on TV, you will hardly have any time left to give attention to your future. But when you significantly pursue your vision, that vision will eventually put you on television!

If you desire greatness, you must ask yourself which you should choose; the fast life or the good life? Comfort zone never produces champions. Champions produce comfort zones. That is why they are never trapped by it. When great people become too comfortable in a given reality, they simply stretch forth and create another, making the one they exit someone else’s pursuit!

Finally, those who desire true greatness must learn to sacrifice time. Time is the universal capital that God has endowed all of us with to make an eternal statement for our earthly existence. Time is the primary currency of trade in the market of purpose. It is the number one investment that champions make into their journey towards a destination. The poor and the rich, the failure and the successful, the king and the subject all have the same capital in twenty four hour installments. The difference between great people and ordinary folk, the high and the lowly, the rich and the poor is not a status or the size of a bank account. It is time. Wealthy people don’t calculate their worth in sums but in time! Surprised?

Losers waste time. What that means is that they fritter it away in a way that they can hardly account for it. Not having a picture of a desirable future, they simply deceive themselves by thinking that they can kill time. What such people do not know is that they are actually committing installmental suicide!

Average people spend time. This means that they use time and can tell what they did with it but most of the activities are hardly relevant enough to their destiny to yield any purposeful dividends. Whatever is spent is gone and cannot be recovered.

Champions invest time. Those who desire greatness wake up every day with a plan for their day. They make their present pay tribute to their future. Specific portions of the day are allocated to specific activities with specific people in specific places for specific reasons. They know that they cannot afford to show up everywhere they are invited and cannot do everything they are asked to. Great people use time to create time. They simply convert available time to valuable time. Even leisure time is deliberately planned!

To attain greatness, space and position must never become prisons that chain you to moribund realities. Learn to be inspired by your vision of the future and those living in its reality. Let your relationships be guided by purpose rather than by impulse. Your hunger and passion for the future must become weapons of curbing your indulgences while your use of time must produce dividends for the future you desire.

That is the SPIRIT of greatness!

Remember, the sky is not your limit, God is!