When Greatness Gets a Push November 2007
Sometimes greatness needs a push. Greatness can seemingly lie dormant for many years. All it takes is a moment when something or someone threatens our beliefs and values. But these moments present opportunities for us to rise to new heights, change our life and reveal our inherent greatness. We’ve all had these life-changing moments and will continue to have them. How can we make the most of them?
Parameshwar Srikantia in his 2001 doctoral dissertation, The Architecture of Greatness, researched greatness by studying thirty eminent philosophers’ ideas about greatness and then compared these with the results of his interviews with individuals in South Asia and Africa. He discovered that critical incidents or turning-points that inevitably led to a life of greatness could be identified. Srikantia noted how critical incidents share a configuration of four elements that combine to propel individuals to new and extraordinary courses of action.
Srikantia found the first element is an “antecedent condition, a presenting situation that involves a fundamental threat to one’s personal equilibrium.” This condition jars individuals out of complacency into action. When their values, beliefs or personal goals come under attack they fight back. Based on our findings from The Greatness Project, we would expand this notion of a presenting situation to include positive opportunities as well as threats. These moments may occur in small daily challenges and big life-changing challenges. The critical moment comes when, having acknowledged the threat or opportunity, you decide whether to take up the challenge. At this point greatness moves some of us forward, others stall.
The second element is what Srikantia calls “The Mayflower phenomenon.” Just as the people on the Mayflower brought ideas and values to forge a new land, so too do those moving toward greatness bring images of greatness learned from important individuals or experiences. These images form us. Story, song, history, and family all play a part in creating our personal notion of greatness to be unleashed at the necessary moment. Taking time to cultivate your notion of greatness and identify those who have contributed to your ideas and beliefs will serve you well at these critical moments.
Third, Srikantia found that the action taken from the critical incident expands possibilities for others, not only oneself. The presenting threat or opportunity may reveal something larger at stake. Great actions and individuals touch others’ lives, so it’s imperative to examine your response to a critical incident. If your actions won’t positively affect others, examine your motives.
The final element emerging from a critical incident is a willingness to pay the price; a propensity to be unstoppable in the pursuit of an ideal. Greatness never goes unchallenged. Whether the adversary is time, nature, other people, or ourselves, perseverance is essential. When the time comes, what will you be willing to do to achieve your goal? How much will you persist?
Critical incidents reveal four elements that can generate greatness. We challenge you to identify your life-changing, life-challenging moments and then learn from them about your values and beliefs. Pay attention to the ideas you’ve learned about greatness; what it is and how to live it. Watch your actions. See how they touch the lives of those around you, but stay true to your values. Finally, in the words of Winston Churchill, “never, never, never, give up.”
The Greatness ProjectTM is researched and written by:
Scott Asalone & Jan Sparrow
Copyright © ASGMC, Inc. 2007