“Greatness” is a big word, has a big meaning, and makes a big difference in your life.  Yes, you can be great, and here is how…

The Great Little Picture

What’s your big picture?  What consumes the bulk of your day or gobbles up your time?

• Going to work.
• Raising a family.
• Organizing bills.
• Fixing cars.
• Going to the dentist.
• Visiting the doctor.
• Preparing meals.
• Cleaning house.
• Driving the kids to school.
• Planning retirement.
• Overcoming illness.

The list goes on. This is how daily life unwinds. You move from one task to the next while raising a family; or from one plan to another when reaching retirement; or from one study to the next when you are in school.  It’s easy to see how you can get wrapped up in a very busy life that blurs the hours together.

These are all great accomplishments, but what did you miss along the way?

Don’t you wish that you did not always have to rush your way through life?  Surprisingly, when you find a moment to slow down, you suddenly realize how much greatness surrounds you.   A great family, great friends, and a great place to live.  Whittle that down even more and  fine points begin to emerge, just like when you learn fine points in karate class.  Students often do not realize the importance of holding their hand a certain way, or why moving their guard from one position to another is a great transition in sparring, until they take the time to try it or it is explained to them.

Without fine points, you have no understanding of why the big picture even exists. In karate, the fine points or the details are time-consuming to learn.  I usually teach the kids the big picture first such as blocks and punches and stances in kata or stepping drills.  Once they are able to perform the movements from beginning to end, I slow it down again to remind  them how each movement works.  The details are important.  The details bring out the strength in the movements.  The details make up the beauty and greatness of the style.

The Details

In life, details make up the greatness of life, too, if you just take a moment to look. Consider these:

• The blue color of the sky on a beautiful day right after a storm.
• The tree that perseveres, even through years of hardened weather and difficulties.
• The way a small child looks with a smile melted on his lips after shedding a tear.
• The way your friend’s eyebrow raises whenever he tells a joke, waiting for a response.
• The beautifully wrapped gift that sits on the table on your birthday that you didn’t expect.
• The smell of orange blossoms bursting forth that you would have otherwise forgotten existed, if not for the fragrance.

These small, almost forgotten bits of goodness remind you how great life really is. The opportunities you are given, the talents you’ve realized, and the time to spend with family and friends are truly irreplaceable moments. When you slow down in life, what happens?  Do you realize how much you love someone? What brings you joy?  What little, tiny tidbit of goodness means more to you than anything?  The next time you smell a summer flower, or feel a raindrop on your hand, I hope you enjoy it for what it is because that very small moment in time makes the big picture so much more worthwhile and meaningful. It gives you the insight you need to be appreciative of every single moment; and every single moment holds a bit of greatness.

The Greatness of Others

My father struggled with multiple sclerosis. He made me see my own life in a whole new light.

The best advice I can give you about what I learned from him is “stop complaining.” Does your complaint have any validity? Are you just complaining because you didn’t get what you want or things didn’t go your way? Focus on the inspirational story of another human being and see if you can differentiate your wants from your needs.  Your complaints may seem overindulgent once you understand what true struggle means.

In our kids martial arts classes, we trained several children who have challenges including cerebral palsy, learning and attention disorders, and deafness.  To watch them grow and get stronger is a great blessing. It is a beautiful fine point to remember, and an inspiration from which to learn. Their greatness can become your greatness.

Inspiration is your responsibility, too.  You have a couple of choices.  You can inspire others or you can be inspired; or, both. To inspire others you need to be a good role model, understand what it is like to overcome a tragedy or a difficulty, or reach an extraordinary level of achievement.  To be inspired yourself, just look around you.  Listen to an older person’s life story; find an example after whom you would like to model your own life; or, just talk to someone. Keep your heart and your mind open and it will be filled up with amazing people and colorful stories.

If you are inspired by someone, tell them.  Let them know that they make a difference in your life.  We are all too stingy with our words of encouragement toward others.  Let those who inspire you know how much they mean to you.

A Great Friend

I’m not talking about hundreds of friends, or even a lot of friends.  I’m talking about one great friend.

I heard something on the radio the other day that by age 29 adults have the most friends they will ever have.  This is a time, for some, before settling down, when they are probably working on their career and their connections grow. There are many friends  with whom to party, socialize, and share, supposedly, at age 29.

Some point after that, though, many adults enter into a different phase of life.  They may get married or settle down into a routine.  Suddenly the friend list starts to shorten.  The reasons, the radio host announced, have to do with getting rid of all the baggage and complaints that all these friends carried. There comes a point when that growing 29-year-old doesn’t want to hear everyone complaining anymore. The list eventually narrows to a few good friends, and possibly, one great friend.

No matter your age, you may have many acquaintances with whom you can go out to dinner, mingle with at bars, talk to at work.  Do you have one great friend who truly cares about what you are going through or what’s on your mind?  Do you have one great friend with whom you can just be you, no pretenses, no appearances?  Do you have one great friend who is there when you are at your best, or at your worst, and to whom you can always turn to find some caring advice?

Friendship is great. Find one great friend.

Your Greatness

It’s nice to do a zillion things well.  I’m probably the epitome of  a person who does a zillion things at time and seeks to do well in each.  Work, teach martial arts, volunteer work, writing, kids events, blogging, and working out.  There is nothing wrong with how I do things, but I can’t focus on one talent. I’ll never be great at any one particular thing.

A professional athlete gets the chance to achieve greatness in a sport because he can focus all of his time and talent in one area.  A person who writes books for a living can hone his talent because he only writes for eight hours per day.  An actor can achieve greatness because all of his time is devoted to practice leading up to his starring role.  A martial artist can achieve greatness when he finds himself on the set of a fantastic martial arts movie, or when he makes a difficult skill seem effortless.

Does that mean you will never achieve greatness, because you cannot focus on one thing?

Your lot in life is such that you need to cast a wide net toward greatness because  you may have numerous responsibilities.  You may have children who require a lot of parental participation and supervision; financial burdens that must be addressed; college tuition to meet; or have committed volunteer hours that add up.  Whatever it is, whatever the obstacles, it is nearly impossible to focus on one talent.

The key to all of this is that one great talent is not the criteria for personal greatness or the greatness within yourself.  It’s all up to you.  Not many of you have the chance to pursue just one dream.  What you can do is weave all of your hopes, beliefs, commitments and responsibilities together, like strands in a rope that make the rope stronger. The rope is made up of all the little areas of greatness that you have cultivated over your lifetime. You don’t need to focus on one thing to show your strengths or be great.

All You

Look at all you do each and every day.  That is true greatness. There are so many specks of greatness splattered in your own life that it is easy to forget that they even exist.  They are often the small things that seem commonplace, like holding your child’s hand, saying a kind word to someone, sharing a deep sense of love. When you weave them all together, you have power and greatness all in one.  Who can deny the greatness in these moments?

A Great Ending

Greatness exists.  You may fail to see it, but it sheds its light over you every minute of every day.  Don’t overlook the small, beautiful moments.  Inspiration, friendships, and personal greatness reinvent themselves continually so if you miss them once, they will swing around again and again until you finally jump on board.  There will never be a time when you miss the opportunity forever because greatness is always churning and building even if you do not notice.

You don’t need The Martial Arts Woman to tell you how great you are.  You need to tell yourself.

Andrea