What Keeps Us from Being Great

three-year-olds grow and learn and strive and Excel not because they go to the right school or they have the right training it's because they have the right attitude we were all born with this designer we're born with this ability to stare down challenge and overcome it how do we go from wanting to grow and accomplish to losing that luster that courage that resilience so what happens at around seven eight years old I see this with all my kids and put them on the bus every morning now in the winter time it's the same routine it's cold so it's hat jacket gloves knapsack this routine works from when they're little as they get older but something happens around seven eight years old my seven-year-old turns to me and hands me back the hat and I said no I mean you got to put it on it's cold you're gonna get sick yeah maybe daddy but if I wear my hat I'm gonna look like aa geek and at that moment something changes something happens in where she decides there is something far more important to worry about it's not my health my accomplishments and it's not my personal greatness there's something greater my image we stopped worrying about growth about change about striving for greatness and start worrying about how it looks being great is replaced with looking great what we really want in life is not greatness its acceptance its approval so we don't trust ourselves we don't believe in ourselves we don't want to be different when I was younger I had one obsession and now when you're growing up in the 90s and you love basketball you can sum up your life's mission in three words be like Mike Michael Jordan the greatest player to ever play the game now one night after basketball practice I thought the gym was empty now I had seen this great Jordan move over the weekend and figured I would practice it a few times until I had it down pat I heard a noise and I spun around it was my coach he said what are you doing I said I was just practicing the latest Jordan move what the means like why he said if you want to be good at basketball why don't you stop trying to be like Mike and start trying to be like you a great basketball player works to leverage their talents using their skills to be the best player they can be not trying to be somebody else and it applies to everything in life when we want to be like somebody else when we're trying to gain everyone's approval and acceptance you know what happens we lose the passion we lose the excitement we lose the creativity we lose that desire that makes us great we go through life and assume that the person on television or on a screen or a poster they have it we stop being us we start being them we stop being true to our personal image and everything gets lost you lose that creative flab great people realize that they have something special inside sure they care about what people think sure they want to win but they know that their path to success is when they bring out their creativity maybe trying to be somebody else is exactly what's preventing you from being the best to you maybe that's what's holding back your desire and now it's time to get it back look at your life today and see where you can bring out your creativity ask yourself does it bother me when I fail why few year-olds try fail try fail and try and fail great people that's what they do the only path to success is when you're bringing out the best in you and the only way you know how to get there is when you fail because you're trying to find it when you see yourself as unique when you trust in your different nests when you stop looking at some standard or some image to measure your success and you start looking at your effort as the measure of success life feels different you get that excitement back you get that desire back the gas is filled in the tank and you're off to the races