You know when you get that ‘ah-ha’ moment of clarity and life starts to make sense? It’s like you are called from something deep within you to go on a search, you face your fears and your resilience is tested over and over again and then little by little clarity arrives and you can see through the fog.
Maybe it is also like Steve Jobs discussed about connecting the dots in his famous Stanford Commencement Speech? But, that is how I am feeling today as I write this post.
Today, I am going to share –
- What is Greatness?
- What is Whole-Heartedness or Whole-Hearted Living?
- 13 Quotes on Greatness.
- “The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt.
- What does Living Your Greatness Whole Heartedly mean for you?
What is Greatness?
There are many definitions of greatness and a couple are –
- “the quality of being great; eminence or distinction” ~ Google
- “Remarkable or outstanding in magnitude, degree or extent” ~ the Free Dictionary
- “…being larger than ordinary size or ability, or being higher in degree or importance.” ~ Your Dictionary
- “a position of power, success or respect.” ~ MacMillan Dictionary
- “exceptionally high-quality” and “the quality or state of being large in size” ~ Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
What is Whole-Hearted Living?
As I have written previously – there are three quotes that sum up the meaning of heartful or whole hearted living for me – two by Pema Chödrön and one by Dr Brené Brown. They are as follows –
- “Owning our story can be hard but not nearly as difficult as spending our lives running from it. Embracing our vulnerabilities is risky but not nearly as dangerous as giving up on love and belonging and joy – the experiences that make us the most vulnerable. Only when we are brave enough to explore the darkness will we discover the infinite power of our light.” ~ Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr Brené Brown.
- “If we want there to be peace in the world, we have to be brave enough to soften what is rigid in our hearts, to find the soft spot and stay with it. We have to have that kind of courage and take that kind of responsibility. That’s the true practice of peace.” ~ Pema Chödrön: Practicing Peace in Times of War
.
- “To be fully alive, fully human, and completely awake is to be continually thrown out of the nest. To live fully is to be always in no-man’s-land, to experience each moment as completely new and fresh. To live is to be willing to die over and over again.” ~ Pema Chödrön: When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.
Dr Brené Brown defines Wholehearted Living as –
“Wholehearted living is about engaging in our lives from a place of worthiness. It means cultivating the courage, compassion, and connection to wake up in the morning and think, No matter what gets done and how much is left undone, I am enough. It’s going to bed at night thinking, Yes I am imperfect and vulnerable and sometimes afraid but that doesn’t change the truth that I am worthy of love and belonging.” (p.10 – Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Dr Brené Brown).
13 Quotes on Greatness
The 13 Quotes on Greatness I found that sparked my thinking around greatness were –
- “The place God calls you to is the place where your deep gladness and the world’s deep hunger meet.” ~ Fred Buechner
- “Strive not to be a success, but rather to be of value.” ~ Albert Einstein
- “It always seems impossible until it is done.” ~ Nelson Mandela
- “Every strike brings me closer to the next home run.” ~ Babe Ruth
- “Success is walking from failure to failure with no loss of enthusiasm.” ~ Winston Churchill
- “As human being, our greatness lies not so much in being able to remake the world, as in being able to remake ourselves.” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
- “Judge your success by what you had to give up in order to get it.” ~ Dalai Lama XIV
- “Without ambition one starts nothing. Without work one finishes nothing. The prize will not be sent to you. You have to win it.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “When one door of happiness closes, another opens, but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one that has been opened for us.” ~ Helen Keller
- “The good news is that the moment you decide that what you know is more important than what you have been taught to believe, you will have shifted gears in your quest for abundance. Success comes from within, not from without.” ~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
- “I’ve come to believe that each of us has a personal calling that’s as unique as a fingerprint – and that the best way to succeed is to discover what you love and then find a way to offer it to others in the form of service, working hard, and also allowing the energy of the universe to lead you.” ~ Oprah Winfrey
- “Be not afraid of greatness. Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them.” ~ William Shakespeare
- “The only thing standing between me and greatness is me.” ~ Woody Allen
“The Man in the Arena” by Theodore Roosevelt
“It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt, the Man in the Arena. Delivered at the Sorbonne (Paris) on April 23, 1910.
What does Living Your Greatness Whole-Heartedly mean for you?
After reading the above definitions on greatness and whole-hearted living, the quotes on greatness and Theodore Roosevelt’s Man in the Arena –
- What does Living Your Greatness Whole-Heartedly mean for you?
- What do REALLY want?
- Are you willing to take the time to reflect, meditate and journal to discover what living your greatness wholeheartedly is for you? If not, how will you know when you are living your greatness?
Over to You…
I hope this post has helped you start to clarify and identify what living your greatness means to you!
Feel free to share in the comments below or on our Facebook page, any questions or comments you might have.
If you are ready to reclaim your courage and take the next step towards freedom and opening your heart, why not join our Toolkit?
References
Brown, B. (2012). Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead. New York, USA: Penguin.
Chödrön, P. (2006). Practicing Peace in Times of War
Chödrön, P. (2010). When Things Fall Apart: Heart Advice for Difficult Times.
Leave A Response