Today my friend Deb sent me a link to a fabulous blog titled Place Yourself in the Presence of Greatness by Leo Babauta. In his piece he says, "You learn to see greatness when you happen upon it, and that is a true gift. It’s not just in famous people, but in commoners like us. If you learn to look. If you recognize it for greatness, and then use it to move you.
"And soon, you use the greatness all around you to reach for greatness yourself.
"And eventually, you realize that you’re always in the presence of greatness … because the greatness is within you.
"And learning that? That’s the greatest gift ever."
What that brought to mind for me is we all have the capability of being great, to be leaders (regardless of title or level). By being authentic to ourselves and others, living our word and paying attention to our impact on others as well as their impact on us, we can be even greater.
I love reading what brings to light something I didn't know before as well as affirming what I always believed. For me a great one is someone who lives their life in direct proportion to the commitments they make and keep. It's not about money, title, position or power. It's about authenticity and truth, caring and consideration. As long as I'm open to learning I'll recognize that everyone in the world knows something more about life and living it than I do and can learn from them.
Yes. Each of us does have greatness within. What I charge you with is to remove all the ways of being that might be causing your greatness to diminish. Some of these are having power over people rather than with them, over-committing and underdelivering, making promises and breaking them and thinking saying sorry again and again will make it all better and most of all, letting pride get in the way of doing the right thing.
What else might be standing in your way of greatness? What do you have to let go of?
2 comments:
I "discovered" your blog again today and was amazed by your advice. So amazed I wanted to leave a comment. Then I found I left a comment before. Apparently, this isn't my first time discovering your nuggets of wisdom.
I agree 100% you can learn from everyone you meet. I tell my clients all the time this same truth. If they check their pride at the door, they just might find the people under them will have the best ideas.
Especially since we live in a world where managers hire skilled labor and that skilled labor often knows more about the projects then the managers. Everyone needs to open themselves up to learning from others and recognizing the greatness that is all around.
Chris
Hey Chris...
Welcome back and thanks for this. I am fortunate that every day I get to learn inside my clients worlds. The day is like my classroom. As I coach them I learn and as I learn I share that learning with them. What a wonderful world we live in as we are able to help people evolve for a passion and a living.
Best
Donna
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