So, You Want to Be Great.
See Tragedy First ☝🏽
I have always believed I will be great.
When self-awareness kicked in around middle school, I questioned what would make me great.
Was it academics? A musical instrument?
Would football thrust me to these heights?
I spent a lot of time on these and other activities, getting really good at them.
But I never reached that undeniable, you-know-it-when-you-see-it pinnacle of what we call greatness.
It was a tough time.
Frustration ensued. Crisis. Teen angst. Fear. Doubt.
I proved myself through hard work and dedication.
Isn’t that how you become great?
Unfortunately, it takes a little more than that,
Late in high school, I discovered my writing talent.
I studied journalism soon after, determined to contribute to a storied legacy of integrity by illuminating the truth.
But even once I started working at NBC in college, the greatness didn’t arrive at my doorstep.
I felt like Simba in The Lion King.
I just couldn’t wait to be King.
My greatness wasn’t close to materializing, and the agony of delay began to impact me.
I read Hemingway’s Green Hills of Africa, wondering if it took the uncertainty and discomfort of a months-long African Safari to become great.
Then, a quarter of the way through the novel, I read this quote:
“Writers are forged in injustice as a sword is forged…”
In Green Hills of Africa, Hemingway calls for ‘mastery’. What makes a Master?
Hm. Injustice.
Not, struggle, not hard work, but injustice builds a great writer.
It reminded me again of Simba’s struggle, whose path to greatness was paved with sincere loss and hardship.
Being born into royalty, Simba hadn’t planned for any setbacks.
The turbulent losses of his father and banishment from his home choked his spirit and shattered his identity. It made him a delusional, aimless mess.
Worse, Simba began to accept the corrupted state he had cultivated.
Homeboy was hanging out with a warthog and eating bugs while his kingdom fell apart.
Just as he cascaded further into his grief-driven mania, a divine prompt freed him from the shackles of his mind.
“You have forgotten who you are,” Mufasa’s spirit speaks to him.
"You must take your place in the Circle of Life.”
Simba rejects this. “How can I go back? I’m not who I used to be.”
“Remember who you are…” The fading spirit booms.
As the clouds dissipate, the winds in Simba’s mind have shifted …
He became determined by a renewed sense of purpose.
Simba rejects this. “How can I go back? I’m not who I used to be.”
Being knocked down could only keep him down for so long; the hardship became the check the King-to-be needed.
This Is what makes Simba great. Because he was set back and got back up, he acquired the necessary juice to finish a divine task toward greatness.
A moment of greatness.
I find loss to be dreadful. I resent evil.
I know not to fear this ideas, but such profound pain and loss are things we are rarely prepared for.
The inevitable hurdles of dread and loss await on my road to glory, like the infamous hyenas.
A few days ago, a writer friend offered this advice for embracing doom and despair.
“Embrace the depth of your own resilience. ‘A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not in the branch, but in her own wings.’
You’re much stronger than you think, even when it feels like the weight is too much to bear.
“Doom/grief” often strips us down…I see this as an opportunity for transformation.
Find the meaning in the struggle and you’ll surprise even yourself.”
I liked that. I was glad to hear it.
Bring on the pain.
These are some of the lessons I’ve learned: Just as you are knocked down, you are presented with a choice.
You can stay down, wallowing in your grief and analyzing the stakes.
You can become aimless and delusional in this state, and you can begin to accept a fate of destruction.
The alternative is to get back up!
Right in that instant of the most intolerable pain is the gold mine of value.
Your self-belief grants you another chance, and with it, your developed sense of integrity brings you resilience.
You’re back in the game, swinging for the fences.
You’ll know not to make the same mistake twice.
In this bounce-back motion, you’re now equipped for the riches of greatness.
The kind of gold that cannot tarnish, because the rewards are in the name of the greater good, and on behalf of those who do not know better.
Be strong and resilient – you can be great. You are meant to be.
Hell, our ancestors went through daily terror just to get by.
And this – the chances of even being born are impossibly tiny!
If just one couple in our whole family tree didn't survive, meet, mate, and get a 1/400 quadrillion sperm-egg match, there would be no you.
And get this: you are the living, breathing intention of your ancestors
It isn’t luck that you’re here, it’s fate.
All you have to do now is take your place in the Circle of Life – it’s calling you to participate.
The time is now; tomorrow can wait.
Being King can too.