Good to Great
courtesy of nsonzi.com
If you attend church regularly then you know how painful it can be when the pastor is out of town or on vacation and there are “guest” speakers. My father is a pastor and growing up I remember that if the congregation found out about a future absence then only a handful of people would show up for the speaker. The reason I’m bringing this up is because our pastor was out this week.
However, the fill in speaker (we’ll call him Ken) did a phenomenal job. One of his key points was that we must re-learn to and allow ourselves to dream. Then we have to determine to pay the price for the dreams we are passionate about. He went on to say that so many dreams are not realized simply because they will cost us more than we are willing to pay.
Ken also read a quote from a book by Jim Collins called Good to Great. In the book Collins states “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great. We don’t have great schools, principally because we have good schools. We don’t have great government, principally because we have good government. Few people attain great lives, in large part because it is just so easy to settle for a good life. The vast majority of companies never become great, precisely because the vast majority become quite good - and that is their main problem.”
This is incredible insight! The ideas in that short paragraph have the potential to change your family life, your business life, your spiritual life, your emotional life, and any other part of life you allow it to touch. Have you been living a good life, but falling short of greatness? Is your business stagnant because when it started doing good you settled for it?
How did the past 12 months go with your career, family, and marriage? Good… or great? Mediocre? Incredible? I challenge you to challenge yourself to greatness in the next 12 months. Maybe you made resolutions at the beginning of this year. Perhaps they’ve already fallen to the wayside. Understand this, if you are not uncomfortable then you are not pushing yourself to greatness. This shouldn’t stress you out either. We all have more than enough stressors in our life. Sometimes we settle for good because it seems like success. But we know down deep, we could achieve more if we put in the effort. Jim Rohn liked to say “if you can achieve more, should you”? That’s a great question and I feel it can be answered with a resounding YES.
So how do you not get stressed out? You simply remind yourself every day that you are not competing with those out in front of you in life. You are only trying to compete with yourself. Just as a serious weightlifter will constantly try to beat his best, you should be growing and pushing yourself to new levels. Don’t become stagnate! Remember the great words of Bill Murray in What about Bob… “baby steps”. So take your eyes off yourself and focus on others. Good to great is a journey- don’t settle for anything less than doing the most you possibly can with this one shot at the gift we know as life!
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