You Were Born To Be Great. So WTF Are You Doing?

You know … you never really know when inspiration                        

is going to strike.  It just struck me on the toilet at
Starbucks.  No lie.  As I was sitting there meditating
on life (which I pretty much do non-stop), I realized
something very important ….

You were born to be great.

Think about that for a second.  Don’t just be like,
"duh."  I’ll repeat it for you.

You were born to be great.

Everyone was.  You were.  I was.  Your mom was.
Me and your mom were.  Everyone.

The key to you being as great as the king of Saudi
Arabia is this …

Find out who you are.

"A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him
before great men.

 - Proverbs 18:16

You were brought into this world with special inborn
gifts/talents that God would like for you to discover
and use. 

And he would like for you to do this for several
reasons …

1.  the world needs them
2.  operating within your gifts will bring you joy
3.  it will provide you the passion necessary to bring
you success and thereby provide for your family and
other people
4.  so Lady Ga Ga will stop it

You were born to be great.

If everyone on earth would just do this one thing, we
would be like a bajillion steps closer to utopia if utopia
was even possible (which it’s not unfortunately). 

You discover your gifts by proactively trying different
things and paying attention to the feedback that life
gives you.

When trying something new, pay attention to two
main things:

1.  how it makes you feel
2.  how it makes other people feel ( e.g. "puking in
their mouth" generally is never a good sign)

"He who heeds the rebukes of life will dwell among
the wise."

 - Proverbs something-or-other

Once you find something that you are passionate
about, that you enjoy doing just for the sake of doing
it, you will have at that point arrived at the Gates of
Greatness.  Welcome.  It is pleasant here.  For one
thing, it generally rains hundred dollar bills.  You
don’t even need a wallet because whenever you have
to pay for something you just have to hold your hands
out and catch the cash. 

One word of caution …

We’re talking Ultimate Destiny here.  There is usually
a season where you will have to do something for
a period of time that does exercise your gifts, but you
would not necessarily do it unless you were getting paid
for it.  This is merely the first step to greatness.

“It is strange to be known so universally and yet to be so lonely.”

- Albert Einstein

Subconsciously, you know that if you truly become successful, you’re going to lose all your friends – and have a hard time making new ones.

You’re going to rise above your current “tribe,” and be tribe-less.

For some people this is actually good news as opposed to a hindrance because your friends and family are totally lame-o. But the bigger sacrifice comes from losing connection with the world (or “system”) at large.

Being “unplugged” is about as pleasant as an injection of purple Kool Aid in your forehead. I have no idea what that would be like, but I mean … it can’t be good.

In the olden days, (like, really olden) if you lost your tribe, you probably died. Evolutionary psychology* would hypothesize that that fear of isolation is hard-wired into our genes; which is why rejection feels like death to us. Literally. It’s a survival mechanism.

So the problem with growing and succeeding is that you suffer loneliness (death) in direct proportion to that growth and success.

Increased Growth = Less Intimacy

“If growth is your main human need, you can plan on your need for love to be met less. Your intimacy will suffer.”

- Anthony Robbins

The reason for this obviously is that the more you learn, grow, and achieve, the less you can relate to people who don’t (which is almost everyone).

You then rise to a position of being able to help the masses, but you do not find comfort in associating with them socially. Your former friends have become your current ministry.

Eagles don’t hang with seagulls. Usually. Except to witness to them or tell them to stop pooping so much publicly.

Let me paint the picture for you …

Multi-millionaires don’t usually attend football games. So scratch the tailgating crowd from the list of “Potential BFFs.” We just don’t wanna paint our faces. At least not more than one color. Sorry.

Sober people don’t normally go to clubs and bars. America’s self-proclaimed “social drinkers” are almost all raging alcoholics in truth. Ask me how I know. Actually no, don’t ask. A.A. told me not to tell people.

The wise don’t indulge in gossip, idle chit chat, complaining, etc. We don’t give a crap what the “Stars” are doing. We ARE the stars (in our own minds at least).

We – the New Rich – don’t watch the news and therefore don’t have much to talk about in regard to current events. Politics annoy us.

And we don’t talk about the weather either. It could be freaking monsooning outside and we’re still headed to Starbucks with no umbrella to type on our MacBooks and print money. We don’t take days off for hurricanes, blizzards, birthdays or ANY day the government says to.

Leaders don’t live for the weekends. We usually work on Saturdays while everyone else is at the beach pretending everything’s ok.

We don’t sleep in on Sunday mornings. We’re in church with the other 7 people there.

We don’t live to have fun and can’t relate to people who do. We live to love, grow, and accomplish our mission/purpose. If something fun happens in the middle of that, we appreciate it, and then get back to work.

We don’t watch TV and have nothing to say in response to “Did you vote for So-And-So last night on American Idol?” Think about those two words btw. American … Idol. Hhmm …

We live to give while others live to take.

We live to sell while others live to buy.

We die daily while others live the American Dream.

And this is all fine with us … but it’s lonely.

And the “masses”, while giving lip service to desiring success, have a sneaking suspicion that this loneliness and suffering awaits them if they get it. So they train their ego to “try” while their real self sabotages them every step of the way. And they stay exactly where they are … comfortable and safe and deluded.

There is no such thing as trying. You either do or you don’t. Period.

“Get rich or die trying.”

- 50 Cent