What Does Greatness Mean to You?

Michaele and I have intentionally focused on posting new content on Agile Best Self every day. In doing so, the most fun part for me is to see how our ideas and experiences with gratitude, then optimism have catalyzed new insights on these topics. Each day I am curious about how Michaele may play off an idea I shared, or vice versa, and I can’t wait to read the next day’s post.

The quote from Simon Sinek above came to my inbox on Christmas Eve, just a few days ago. I knew immediately that I was going to write about it, because it fit perfectly in the flow of posts about optimism. Then I read Michaele’s last post. It was almost like we planned it, but I can assure you we did not. We are really locked in on optimism right now.

I really like her thought “if you can feel it, you can make it happen” that she coins. I think this phrase is a really good definition for greatness. Greatness is relative to the person, I believe, especially when we are talking about our best self journey. Greatness is when we are intentionally and fully in the present moment, being our very best so we can enable others to be their best selves. Sounds like our cornerstone Agile Best Self Principle 1.

Agile Best Self Principle #1: Our highest priority is to be our best self and enable others to be their best selves.

Think about this for a moment: the quote above is really saying, in my opinion, that we can’t be our greatest, best self without optimism. I think that’s true.

So, as we think about setting intention for 2021, perhaps one question we could ask to help us fill in the blank might be: what would your greatness look like in 2021? Writing down a few words about your greatness may lead to some ideas for setting your intention.

This question is a form of self-empathy. It’s borrowed from a type of questioning, when used with other people to get them beyond their own Inner Critic dialogue to focus on their reality. It’s showing empathy to another person — acknowledging another person’s feelings and calling them to greatness anyway. It comes from Cy Wakeman’s research on drama in the workplace.

In this case, I am using it on myself to help cut through messages my Inner Critic is broadcasting. What does my greatness feel like right now? What could it feel like in 12 months? Here I am acknowledging my own inner dialogue but choosing to focus on greatness anyhow.

Having the skill of optimism creates the feeling that this greatness will be achieved.

I am going to formally coin the quote right now. It will stand the test of time I am sure.

“If you can feel it, you can make it happen.”

Michaele Gardner

I’m still not done setting my intention for 2021 yet. What is happening, however, is I am creating and sharing a process for doing so. Thanks, Michaele, for the post yesterday, which gets me one step closer.

2021 is looking like it’s going to be epic.

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