Your Life On the LINE…

Stepping Into Your Greatness

Stepping Into Your Greatness means pushing past your doubts, fears, and excuses—and living life to the fullest. It doesn’t mean you will do everything perfectly, never make mistakes, or experience setbacks. It means challenging yourself to go for it and do the best you can do.It means acknowledging your potential and fully embracing your gifts.

Find a “Great Mind” Mentor…

Living a great life begins with thinking great thoughts. If you want to step into your greatness, you will need a mentor to guide you along your path. Reading biographies (or watching movies) about inspiring, accomplished individuals can help you create your own roadmap based on the steps great people took. Their stories will enlighten and energize you! Here’s my short list of some of those great minds:

1. Ben Franklin
2. Martin Luther King, Jr.
3. Albert Einstein
4. Leonardo da Vinci
5. Zora Neale Hurston
6. George Washington Carver
7. Madame C.J. Walker
8. Winston Churchill
9. Eleanor Roosevelt
10. William Blake

After reading the biography you’ve chosen to inspire you, try to relate what happened in that person’s life to your own. The following is a list of questions you may find useful:

What were the turning points in the person’s life?
What was their greatest motivation?
What was their biggest obstacle?
What was their greatest accomplishment?
What was their biggest disappointment?
Who were some of the people who influenced them—and why were they important?
Have you been through similar experiences in your own life? If so, how did you handle those events—and how does that differ from the way this person handled them?
What did this person’s life teach you?

Overcoming the Roadblocks to Greatness…

Exterminate Your Excuses

Isn’t it amazing how we’re never at a loss for a good excuse? At some point, we’ve all come up with at least one really good “reason” for not stepping into our greatness. Sometimes I blame my parents, and at other times I get real creative and tell myself that I have some rare and undiagnosed food allergy that drains my energy and causes my mind to wander. Deep down I know an excuse by any other name is still an excuse and that recognizing them is the first step to exterminating your excuses

Dissect Your Doubts…

I attended a workshop recently where the trainer described doubt as “a dirty dog” because of the ferociousness with which it can attack our dreams and desires. She suggested that one way to tame the dog is to dissect it and see what is feeding it. Let’s say you dream of starting a business but doubts about your ability to achieve success have paralyzed you. Examining your doubts might help you see that the one really holding you back is based on the belief that you need a business degree to start a business. Once you pinpoint this doubt, you can then decide whether you want to go get that degree, take some relevant business classes, or perhaps team up or consult with someone with business savvy.

Face Your Fears

Stepping into your greatness is a scary proposition because it may mean stepping away from habits and people that you have grown accustomed to. Fortunately, fears don’t have to be eradicated; they just need to be confronted.

What are you waiting for? Make a list of ten small steps you can begin taking to make your life the greatest show on earth…

Habits for Greatness

Ben Franklin has to be considered one of the greatest men to ever inhabit this planet. He was a scientist, inventor, printer, philosopher, musician and economist. In his autobiography he included a list of habits he believed were necessary to live a great life:

Ben’s intention was to acquire these habits one by one, by devoting a week to developing each one. Here’s how you can follow his example:

• Make a list of the qualities you believe great people share.
• Put each quality on a 3x5 card.
• Each week shuffle the cards, and then pull a card from the deck.
• Seek out opportunities throughout that week to practice exhibiting that particular quality.

"If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead and rotten, either write things worth reading or do things worth writing." – Ben Franklin

Call to Action…

Call someone you admire and whom you believe is willing to support you in living a great life. Share your commitment to step into your greatness. Ask for her help and encouragement. Ask her to hold you accountable and to call you out any time you are observed doing anything less than your best. Show her your list of excuses, doubts and fears. Ask her to challenge you to take the actions needed to rise above those obstacles.