Greatness can come in all shape and sizes. Oftentimes people correlate greatness with mass notoriety and praise. While that type of greatness is limited to a few, everyone has the opportunity to be great in the every day things they do. The question is the same though....
But if that's the case then why aren't more people great? Is it because we as people consider greatness in only a few ways or is it because people can't see greatness in everyday ordinary things?
I think most people could go either way on the subject, but it's safe to say most wouldn't necessarily correlate greatness with the local janitor at their high school when compared to an NBA athlete.
What if I told you that the local janitor exemplified greatness at the highest level and in many ways more so than your favorite athlete? Would you think I was crazy?
Let's take a second to figure out what greatness really means and what it may look like in your own life.
Greatness requires sacrifice, dedication, time, effort, energy and much more. These are all things we hear constantly in regards to sports and business, but how many people are preaching it or acting on these traits in their daily lives?
The misconception about greatness is that it always leads to money, accolades, fame, and notoriety. However, some of the most influential people are the those that you meet and see day to day in your ordinary life. This may be your Mom, Dad teacher, boss, or favorite barista and they typically all have one thing in common:
The ability to positively influence your life.
Greatness requires a person to be selfless in every way but also willing to take advantage and expand on any opportunity presented to them. People want to believe that everyone has the opportunity to move to the top in their field of choice but that's not always the case. Some people will work unbelievably hard and never have a chance to be a Head Coach, the CEO of their company, or even a manager.
The problem is that we often correlate success and greatness with titles. However, greatness can look like the tenth person sitting on your bench giving maximum effort during practices and being a positive influence every game. It can look like a bus driver that gets you from point A to B with a smile on their face.
We fail to realize that without other positive people in our lives, greatness would be just a word and meaningless in many ways.
So what is greatness then really?
Greatness is the ability to change a person's life by just being around them. It's working unbelievably hard when you may never have a chance to be a starter on your basketball team. Greatness is smiling and working your hardest when you're cleaning toilets for a living. It's putting others' needs before yours and doing good for others without looking for anything in return.
These are the people that externally and internally mean the most to us and these are the people that oftentimes are the reason professional athletes, CEO's, and superstars are so successful in what they do. Continue to be the best version of yourself because you never know who you may influence positively in your life.
Remember, we can't always control the hand we're dealt but you can make the decision each and every day to be great in everything you are involved in and everything you do. Take today as a new opportunity to exemplify greatness in your current situation and life and try your best to be better everyday!
What do you think it means to be great? Leave us a comment below!
At Dr. Dish Basketball we're committed to greatness every day and will do our best to continue innovating and providing the basketball community with the best instructional and inspirational content.
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And always remember to train hard, train smart, and train with a purpose!