It is difficult to define greatness.One person's idea of greatness may not be that of someone else, because what makes a person great is often highly personal.Concrete ways for you to get started on achieving your goals are available.Lao Tzu said, "A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step."
Step 1: Decide on your goal.
You have to choose something concrete to work with if you want to be great.Pick a goal that makes sense for your personality and think about your strengths and areas for improvement.If you want something and are willing to work hard to get it, you are more likely to achieve it.You can decide if you want to become a great author or investigative journalist.You can either become an activist or help make change by getting involved in politics.Write down your dreams first.It will come soon that you will be able to make them specific and doable.Henry David Thoreau once said, "If you have built castles in the air, your work needs not be lost; that is where they should be."Steve Jobs said in his speech that if today were the last day of his life, would he want to do what he is doing today?This could be a good question to ask yourself.
Step 2: Correctly frame the problem.
You need to frame the problem of achieving them so that you don't get overwhelmed, since you have a list of the great things you want to accomplish.When you're just starting out, it's easy to feel like you can't achieve your goals.If you want to move away from your goal, frame it so that it is something you are working toward.You are more likely to achieve your goals if they are positive.Frankl refused to allow the Nazis to take away his freedom of choice in order to survive the concentration camp.Stephen Hawking was diagnosed with a type of motor neuron disease at the age of 21.He was given two years to live.Realizing that others were going through worse things and recognizing that he might only have a limited time to achieve his goals inspired him to work even harder.
Step 3: Make your goal specific.
Make sure you can achieve your goals once you have framed them in a positive way.Make your goals specific is the best way to do this.You are more likely to achieve what you want if you have a specific goal in mind.Instead of saying to yourself, "Batman isn't a real person, therefore I cannot be him", ask yourself what you can do to be like Batman.Set your goals to follow through on those values and determine what, specifically, about Batman you would like to emulate.Work in a children's cancer ward if you want to dress up as Batman.Donate money or time to a local soup kitchen to help people who are poor.You get to wear a costume and help keep the streets free of crime if you become a police officer.
Step 4: Positive thinking is good.
You can achieve greatness with visualization techniques.Studies show that visualization can help improve athletic and academic performance.Muhammad Ali and Tiger Woods are two athletes who have used visualization to their advantage.Outcome visualization is the process of imagining yourself achieving your desired goal, and you should use outcome visualization with process visualization to get the best results.This visualization should be as detailed as possible and should use all of your senses: imagine who is there with you as you achieve your goal, what it smells and sounds like, where you are, and so on.You can draw a picture or create a vision board to help you with your mental visualization.Imagine all the steps you need to take in order to achieve your goal in process visualization.Think about the actions you will take to accomplish your goal.For example, if your goal is to be Batman, you could think about what you need to do at each step: find a costume, contact hospitals in the area, practice your Batman voice, etc.
Step 5: Positive action can be used.
Positive action must be coupled with positive visualization in order for it to be effective.You have to work towards the goals you have set in order to enjoy the thought of achieving them.Once you have visualized each step you need to take to achieve a goal, it will be easier to actually take those steps.If you want to be a writer, you need to write every single day.You can join a local writers group, take writing classes at a community center, enter contests, and get your writing seen by other people.Ask your friends to give you feedback.Stephen King reminds us that stopping a piece of work just because it is hard, either emotionally or imaginatively, is a bad idea.Donate your time to a food bank if you don't have a lot of money.If you want to tutor under-privileged children, teach language classes.It can be a small gesture of eliminating hunger.The domino effect is caused by making a difference in just one person's life.
Step 6: Look at others' success stories.
You have to look at what made other people succeed in their chosen path.There are many similarities between the stories.Jesse Owens, the athlete who won 4 gold medals in the 1936 summer Olympics in Berlin, was one of 10 children.He had a passion for running since he worked after school.Owens was subjected to horrible racism to compete in the U.S. and in Germany, but he was able to destroy the propaganda of Aryan racial superiority at the 1936 Olympics.The first woman to fly into space was once a textile factory worker.She was chosen from 400 applicants because of her interest in sky-diving.Tereshkova earned a doctorate in engineering after going through all the intensive training that was required.
Step 7: For yourself, stay in it.
If you want to impress others, your undertaking may be doomed before it even starts.Many people who achieve greatness aren't seen as great at first.Stephen King's first novel, Carrie, would not sell.He says in On Writing that he did it for the pure joy of the thing and that it sold 1 million copies in its first year.The list of now-famous authors who were rejected at first, even many times, is incredibly long.Even though she is considered one of the greatest writers in the English language, multiple publishers rejected her first several novels.Frank Herbert, author of the world's best-selling science-fiction novel of all time, Dune, was rejected 23 times before someone agreed to publish his novel, and even then, they weren't sure they were making the right choice.The history of scientific achievement shows people who were thought to be insane before they were proven correct.Galileo publicly supported the idea that the Earth revolved around the Sun in 1610 despite the fact that his findings were incorrect.He was pardoned by the Vatican in 1992.
Step 8: You can learn from your mistakes.
Learning from your mistakes is a hallmark of the great.People who make the same mistakes over and over again don't get very far.Scott Berkun, best-selling author and inventor, says that understanding four basic types of mistakes can help you understand them and prevent them.Being human guarantees that these things will happen occasionally, and there isn't much you can do to avoid them.Paying late fees on movies you rent because you didn't take your car in for maintenance is one of the simple mistakes that can be avoided.Once you recognize what went wrong, these can be fixed.If you already know what the mistake is, eating bacon at every meal, always arriving late when you go to the movies with friends, wanting to finish writing a novel but not making time to write, then you know thatInvolved mistakes involve more effort to keep you from making them.These mistakes require a lot of commitment and thought to prevent, because they tend to be the result of bad habits.The mistakes are complex.They often have significant consequences and no clear way to keep them from happening again: failed relationships or business ventures.Do you have questions about your mistakes?It can be hard to look at your mistakes in detail, but it is important for you to learn.You can figure out what to change by asking questions like "What assumptions did I make in this situation?"J.K. Rowling talks about her initial failure, living as a single mother with next to no income and multiple rejections from publishers, as the reason she kept trying with her writing.She wanted to see that even though her greatest fears had been realized, she could make it.People who ask for advice and support from other people, such as asking for help when you keep making the same mistake and don't seem able to change, are more likely to succeed in the long run.Make sure you reach out to people who love and support you so that the feedback is useful and not brutal.
Step 9: Don't give up.
Perseverance is a sign of greatness.Jesse Owens overcame horrible racism and went on to win 4 gold medals and break a number of records.Learning from your mistakes should be a part of perseverance.If the things you try don't work out, keep trying, but also learn from your mistakes and change the outcome for the better.If your goal is to achieve literary greatness but no literary agents are picking up your novel, you have to consider a few things, including re-writing it, having a trusted friend or family member look it over and give you some ideas, and maybe trying to get a literary agent.Disney was fired from the newspaper he worked in because he was considered to have no imagination or good ideas.When he tried to get MGM to distribute Mickey Mouse, he was told that the idea of a cartoon mouse wouldn't sell.When Oprah Winfrey was fired from her job as a TV reporter, she was told that she wasn't good enough for TV.She is one of the world's most influential women because she did not let that stop her.
Step 10: It's time to break out of your comfort zone.
You need to leave your comfort zone to achieve greatness.People need a space just outside of their comfort zone to push themselves to higher levels of performance.If you are willing to challenge yourself, your comfort zone expands.If you want to start small, turn off your gps on your road trip, order something you'd never normally try at a restaurant, and approach a perfect stranger.You will always learn new things even if you don't succeed.Do you regret not making it at the end of your life?It is important to distance yourself from how you feel in the present because most people are afraid of risk.They are more likely to regret not taking those risks later.If you take controlled, informed risks, you will be more resistant to dealing with unexpected challenges.
Step 11: Put yourself out there.
The only way that people will see and acknowledge your work is if you put it out into the world.Exposure to others' opinions and critiques is the only way you'll improve and achieve greatness, and it can be terrifying to show your first draft of a novel to someone, or put up your photography on a website for everyone in the world to see.If you're an artist, make a website and post your work online so that people can see it.Talk to galleries or coffee shops in your community to see if they would be willing to host some of your work.It's a network!You should attend professional events in the field whenever possible.Go to gallery openings and workshops if you want to be an artist.The best conferences will help you become a great scholar.If you want to talk about your work, you have to see what other people are doing.
Step 12: Keep learning.
You will need to keep learning, even as you succeed.Look at how other people are achieving their goals and see if you can do the same for yourself.You should try to be better each day.Donate to a worthy cause or use your writing skills to cheer up a friend.It is possible to feel better about yourself by doing an act of kindness or compassion.To learn new things, stretch yourself.If you're good at mathematics, get into literature or history.If you want to dance, take a break to learn about art or computer science.Learning something new keeps your brain active, it keeps you from being too relaxed, and it can give you new avenues for creativity.It will help you challenge confirmation bias or the tendency to look only at the information that supports what we already believe.Even if they are in very different fields from you, you can still get advice and knowledge from them.
Step 13: Don't act on your own.
Always seek the help and guidance of others as you achieve your goals.There is no one who hasn't been helped in one way or another by people in their community, whether through education, a single kind act, or access to social programs.Don't forget to give back to your community and the people who helped you along the way when you have achieved greatness.