I recently came across a quote from F.M. Alexander that says: “ People do not decide their futures, they decide their habits and their habits decide their futures”. When thinking about greatness and where it might come from, that quote says for me what the fertile ground is where greatness could grow: anyone can attain greatness, but hardly alone and never without changes and commitment. It would be easy to pretend that only hard work and that the famous 10.000 hours could suffice to reach mastery and irradiate with greatness. The reality is made of a more complex puzzle where talent, work and non-linear progression with highly interactive influences are key and again, never following a single path or model for greatness.
All the ideas surrounding Positive Psychology are determinant in the quest for greatness : “The approach for an improved well being that PP proposes involves not only a larger focus on developing strengths (such as perseverance, courage, forgiveness or wisdom) for higher performances and longer term and longer lasting autonomous well-being or self-transcendence (Martin et al., 2021), but as well a clearer understanding of the one’s weaknesses and how they affect the overall well-being rather than being the unique source of issues to be fixed. It leads to question sports myth such as, “The team that wants it the most is going to win”. Indeed if grit is needed (with many other elements) to achieve higher performances, the truth is that the best prepared and skilled / talented team tends to win more often statistically speaking. It means that, just as much as mental toughness, the aggregation and work on the different acquired and trained skills, talents and strengths are what eventually changes the tide and goes in favor of those who worked to reach excellence through achieving their fullest strengths potential while taking care of their weaknesses too. On the other side, a team that would only focus in using all their energy in fixing the issues and hoping that success will come from only sheer will power directed in solving the urgency of the issues will hardly have a chance to perform evenly over a longer period and achieve better results than their opponent. On top it is often visible that teams that would rely only on the willingness are powered by a negative emotional and cognitive fuel based on going against, rather than a growth attitude of pushing for and showing strengths, which eventually promotes self –transcendence and in sports, a direct access to Flow state (Biswas-Diener, 2010 ; Martin et al. 2021 ; Leonard, 1991). Coupled with the need to understand developmental stages (like Erikson’s model) and related neurological patterns and pathways, positive psychology and the idea of self-actualization are mandatory elements to develop a plan towards reaching greatness.
Understanding the real nature of Greatness is to accept it is an immaterial objective that never is definitive; it is a moment that could be reached over and over at different moments of a career and a life, having diverse meaning each time and being the new ground for next experience of greatness. Accepting reality for what it is, with acceptance and gratitude is a great way to accept the natural ambivalence and ambiguity that is part of life; just as much as emotions are neither morally good or bad, so is it with our experiences and their full ontological nature, and accepting them is a major trait and capability to develop when we talk about self-actualization, self-transcendence and building upon adaptive skills and strengths (Biswas-Diener, 2010 ; Winston, 2018). That is a vision to be adopted when searching for greatness. I mentioned earlier that there’s no single path or method to reach greatness (Kaufman et al., 2023). So what truly is greatness? I would be tempted to say it is the pursuit of a continuous subjective and objective level of excellence in performances. Therefore, a unique attitude and an emotional, cognitive and behavioral items / science / applied knowledge blueprint could be established to provide this added value to the original performer that seeks improvement up to the greatest possibility. Interestingly, the larger and wider the set of skills (mental, physical, behavioral, etc), the bigger the probability to attain greatness (Epstein, 2019), be it contextually defined by the performer and for the performer in a defined environment.
One can be the best when in touch with one’s true self and as the notion of one’s true self is constantly evolving, it appears that it is a long lasting objective that requires continuous work. It asks all the questions of nature vs. nurture and sometimes we think greatness has been achieved while it was just an earlier maturation rather than talent, work and the drive to achieve a result.
With time passing, reconsidering my own experience as an athlete, digesting my different professional careers and now assessing my current path as a consultant in sports psychology, I have the certitude that experiencing, experimenting, connecting, listening, recognizing, validating and adapting is part of the process. I see how a professional greatness achieved in elite sports in different discipline happened before my 20’s, greatness in my corporate life with promotions and financial success between my 20’s and 30’s and greatness in the movie directing business with international awards crowned my mid 30’s. Now that I am in my middle life, it becomes clear that being a capable, trained and a genuine enabler is an external character that when I was younger allowed me to be successful; now I have the privilege to be that person and embrace that role. Helping clients in finding and developing their own greatness and being a humble witness of their success is the greatest possible reward (Coyle, 2009). Greatness and success are defined in the eye of the beholder, and helping in engaging, focusing, evoking and planning habits opens to a large range of successful futures each of them synonym of greatness. I witnessed it through my entire life, and now I can apply all of those years of practical research and experimentation in the science of helping athletes define and reach their own greatness.
References
Winston, C.N. (2018). To be and not to be: A paradoxal Narrative of Self-Actualization. The Humanistic Psychologist, 2018, Vol. 46, No2, p159-174
Zhao, Y. (2023). Learning for uncertainty: reach for greatness. Educational Research for Policy and Practice, 2023, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10671-023-09358-z
Biswas-Diener, R. (2010). Practicing positive psychology coaching: Assessment, activities and strategies for success. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. (978-0-470-53676-6)
Leonard, G. (1991). Mastery: The keys to success and long-term fulfillment. New York, NY: Penguin Books.
Martin, J. A., Ericson, M., Berwaldt, A., Stephens, E. D., & Briner, L. (2021, September 9). Effects of Two Online Positive Psychology and Meditation Programs on Persistent Self-Transcendence. Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/cns0000286
Kaufman, S.B. & Epstein, D.(2023). Where does Greatness come from. The Psychology Podcast, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VhfpD3dpdkQ
Epstein, D. (2019). Range: Why Generalists triumph in a specialized World. Riverhead Books, 2019.
Coyle, D. (2009). The Talent Code: Greatness isn’t born. It’s Grown. Here’s how. Bantam, 2009.