Learn How to Bring Out Your Greatness. Sheba Blake

something new and not doing well with it at first.

      It is said in Malcolm Gladwell’s book Outliers that to become an expert at something, you need to spend a minimum of 10,000 hours (i.e. 20-hour days over a period of 10 years) of focus and practice on that topic. Very few people will reach that status, so this is another reason why you should not allow the criticism of a few people to deter you from trying something new, as it’s quite possible that those people are not “experts” themselves according to that definition. Additionally, even “experts” by that definition do not know everything, as they can always learn something new about their field of study as well, so these facts should reassure you in your effort to try new challenges and activities in an effort to expand your skill set, increase your knowledge of yourself and your abilities, and find the greatness within you.

      By trying new activities and tasks, you should get a better understanding of who you are as a person and what drives or inspires you to increase your effort to do the very best work that you can do. First, you should learn your strengths and weaknesses of what you do well and what you struggle with. This will give you a better indication of what tasks/occupations you want to work with to achieve your inner greatness. Second, you will learn more about what inspires you to achieve greatness. What causes or goals do you want to achieve with your skill set that will drive you to go those extra steps to achieve them? This will also lead you to find out what you should be doing to achieve your inner greatness that will lead to a more fulfilling life and lead to greater contributions to the world.

      Third, you will learn how to deal with adversity and setbacks by trying new activities and challenges. Life is often full of them; by dealing with adversity and setbacks during a new challenge or activity, you will learn the skills and attributes needed to handle more challenging setbacks in life, such as the loss of a loved one, the loss of a job, or even the loss of your home due to some disaster (fire, tornado, hurricane, flooding, etc.). When you willing put yourself out there to try to do something new and don’t do it very well, you have to deal with the unfamiliar and uncomfortable situation of not doing something well when you normally do your usual tasks well. This says much about your character and your willingness to improve your skill set and your effort to find your inner greatness, what you were truly meant to do to make the greatest positive contributions to this world.

      Also keep in mind that no one is born great; they have to work at it in order to bring out that greatness within them. While some people figure out what they are most capable of doing and like doing at a young age, many people don’t really figure out what they are best at and most like doing until they are older. This is why many people in their 40s, 50s, and even 60s change professions and embark on a new “path” in life, looking to find a happier, more satisfying way of life that brings more positive contributions to their world. Many times, this is due to some activity they’ve been involved with on the side, such as volunteering for a cause such as the environment, or volunteering in their hometown and enjoying conversing with people and helping out those in need, etc.

      This is why it’s important to always expand your horizons and take on new tasks and activities- you never know when one such task or activity will open up your eyes to a new path in your life that can lead to greater enrichment for you and lead to you making greater contributions to the world. It can lead to you finding your true inner greatness that is within you, just waiting to be discovered and utilized to the fullest extent possible.

      Therefore, all people have greatness within themselves, but it is often difficult to find out what that greatness is and how it will manifest itself to where it makes the greatest contributions to our world. Many times, it’s due to limitations we ourselves and/or our society put on us, such as not believing we can change our status in the world or not wanting to do something different than what other family members have done. It’s also due to our own fear of trying new activities and tasks, partly because we don’t like to do something unfamiliar to us out of fear of embarrassment of not doing it well, plus the fear of being ridiculed by others because we didn’t do that new task well.

      In truth, when we allow ourselves to be bound to our lives out of fear and avoid trying new tasks/challenges, we are limiting our own greatness because we’ll never know where our true talents lie and where our greatest passions and interests are. We may do our current tasks and occupations well enough to get a paycheck, support our families, and put a roof over our heads, but those tasks and occupations may not give us the emotional and mental satisfaction we really want out of life, plus they may not give us the opportunity to show the greatness we truly have within ourselves, including the opportunity to provide our best contributions to the world.

      This is why we must always strive to try new activities and tasks in an effort to expand our skill set, to learn from the failures and difficulties of undergoing the new activity/task, to learn where our strengths and interests lie, and to grow as a person. No person knows everything; even experts in a field of study don’t know everything about it. To truly reach our greatness and our maximum potential as a human being, we must always be willing to grow, try new activities/tasks, and learn from the experiences we encounter, including the mistakes we make. Just doing the same mundane, usual tasks we always do will limit our potential and greatness as an individual, as we’ll never know whether we were capable of doing another task or occupation better, making better contributions to the world, and receiving the richest fulfillment from our work.