True Greatness

   I’ve been thinking about something lately. People judge greatness in a lot of different ways, but in today’s times, it’s getting increasingly more common to call someone great or even the greatest at their craft. We see it all the time. Young college athletes are hailed as the next Michael Jordan or Joe Montana before they’ve actually accomplished anything. Then there are current athletes who have accomplished a lot but aren’t even close to the end of their journey. We already try to make comparisons. LeBron James is always compared to Jordan, and a constant debate of who is the better player will probably rage on for years to come. In the writing world, it’s not all that different. We’re always saying who the next big thing is. Relationships are the same. We can have one amazing night with someone, and we dare to call it great and pretend that it can always stay that way. Sure, it was perfect for a moment, but is that what true greatness is about? Is it just a moment in time that fades away to nothingness? I don’t think so, and I want to tell everyone how I define greatness and even the people who are the greatest at their crafts and relationships.

   First of all, I have to say this. I don’t think we can truly judge how great someone or a situation is until everything is done. Otherwise, it’s like looking at an unfinished picture. We always like to look at the best part of a picture or situation and remember how great it is, but that’s not what makes our journeys special. Imagine that your career or love life are the same as a gigantic painting that you’re going to need to continually paint on every day of your life to finish. Now, realize one thing. When you first start painting, you’re not going to have any idea what you’re doing. Sooner or later, you’ll learn, though, and before it’s over, you might even be one of the best at it. Who knows? You might be the very best at what you do, but in time, our skills will decline. It’ll be harder to stay sitting in one place to paint all day. Your mind will also lose the edge that it had when you were younger. You’ll have the experience that you’ve gained from years of painting this picture, but somehow, you won’t be who you used to be. You’re probably wondering why I’m using this example, and it’s because it’s a good one. Compare it to a sports star. They start out having to learn, and then they prime. A few years after that, they begin to decline until it becomes painfully obvious that they aren’t the player they used to be. Writers aren’t so different. After so long, we start to run out of original ideas, and then all of our books start to look the same unless something sparks a change in that area. When the sports star declines, many analysts will say that they need to retire. In most people’s opinions, anything they do once they’re no longer the player they used to be is only going to damage whatever legacy they could leave. People seem to take the same approach when it comes to relationships, too. We spend a great night with someone, but then things get complicated, and most of the time, we end up going our separate ways. It’s for the best, or so they say. After all, we can always remember that one great night. If we had stuck things out in a relationship that was a shell of what we expected it to be, then we wouldn’t even have that. The man or woman that we remember in our memories would be replaced by a totally different person. We think that we need those memories, and we look up to people who leave their profession on top. It’s more respectable for them to leave in top form, and it’s good that our last memories of them playing or writing are fond ones. It makes us think they were great. I’m here to tell you that sportscasters and most people are completely wrong about what makes a great person or situation.

   You might ask how can I say that everyone else is wrong about what makes greatness, and the truth is I can’t. This is simply my opinion, but I believe it with all my heart. When Michael Jordan came back to the NBA and played for the Wizards, all of my friends saw a man who wasn’t the same player. He was damaging his legacy. Some people still think that without that comeback, we wouldn’t even be debating if anyone was in the same league with him. I didn’t see it that way, though. I saw a man who had a little more to give to a game that he had already given plenty to. He wasn’t the same player, but he was still better than most in the NBA. He loved his profession, and he gave all he had to it until there was no more desire left in him. In the same way, writers who have blown through every creative bone in their body and still continue to try to push more out of them are respectable, too. They’re doing something they love, and even though it doesn’t come as easy as it used to and people don’t perceive them the same way, they’ll do what they love and give what they can to a community of readers until there’s truly nothing left. You see, to me . . . that’s greatness. When you give everything you have to your craft, both mentally and physically, there’s truly something to be admired in it. I don’t care about career points or book sales; what I care about is one simple thing. Did someone reach a peak that made them stand out, and when they fell down from there, did they continue to give everything they could to it? Three things make greatness when it comes to work. The first is commitment. When you’re young and inexperienced, committing to do whatever it takes to be the best at what you do will carry you further than anything in this world. The second is individuality. Truly great people make their own way no matter what business they’re in. They don’t look to others to see how things are done. They come up with original ideas and then work every day to make those ideas the best they can be. The third is simple. It’s love. They love what they do so much that they can’t let go of it, even when people say they should. They literally give until there’s nothing left. I’ve often heard that an older person who has been doing their job for a long time needs to retire because they’re only half of what they used to be. Truly great people love their craft enough to want to give that fifty percent that they have left. As a matter of fact, they want to give everything they can to the thing that’s given them purpose. The fact that they can’t give what they used to isn’t a subtraction from what they’ve done in the past. Instead, everything they give when someone else would have given up is like icing on the cake.

   Now, there’s one more thing I want to touch on because I didn’t before. All of that applies to relationships. Truly great relationships don’t exist because of one great night. They exist because we realize that every night won’t be like that one. In some ways, the beginning stages of love can feel like the peak of a relationship. That sounds odd, but life has a way of getting complicated the longer you’re with someone. Greatness in a relationship starts at the beginning in the same way as it does with a professional athlete. You decide that you’re going to commit to making your relationship the best it can be. Then you make sure to be original. You don’t compare your relationship to some love story or look to a magazine to get ideas to “spice things up.” You find a new and original way every single day to show your partner that you love them. It won’t be perfect, but it’ll be you, and more importantly, it’ll be both of you together. Finally, at the end of it all, you’ll find that you know everything about the man or woman that you love. You’ll be old, and honestly, things might get boring. You’ll have used up all of your original daily ideas, but that’s when the truly great part begins. Just like a fading athlete, you’re relationship and your health will start to look different. You’ll probably look back on the past and miss who the two of you used to be, but it’ll be too late for you to even think about changing one thing about the present. You’ll love her too much to ever think about what your life would have been like without her, and that’s when it happens. Even though the excitement in your relationship and your body aren’t what they used to be, you’ll be thankful for one more day that you can give everything you have left to someone truly worth loving.

   As lame as it probably sounds, this blog is really about love. Loving something or someone is the greatest thing we do, and if you want to define greatness, you’ll never go wrong by defining it this way. True greatness is putting everything you have into something or someone, continually finding creative ways to make your love and talent grow, and finally, realizing that you can’t leave your situation until you’ve given everything in you for the thing or person that you love. There’s no such thing as a great person if they don’t find passion and love in what they’re doing and who they’re with, and the greatest people of our time gave everything they had to the things that meant the most to them.

   Thanks for reading, guys. I hope you all find your greatness - not through momentary gain, but through a lifetime of constant growth and love.