Greatness Is A Moving Target!
The last column I wrote before I took a month long vacation from Monday Morning opened with these words:
- Inch by inch, anything's a cinch Been There
- Dare to dream, dare to do, dare to succeed! Done That
- If you can dream it, you can achieve it! Been There Too
- Everyday, in everyway I'm getting better and better! Done That Too...
They were followed with a reminder that they were the words many of us “grew up” with as we began our careers, and that today, having “been there…done that” many of my contemporaries are asking, “Now what?” Most of us aren’t facing questions about how to achieve a measure of success, rather we are facing questions dealing with the next fifteen to thirty years and the of validity of the principles we practiced to drive our careers toward our earlier goals. This week, I begin a six week look at the “positive principles” many of us built our careers on and how they can help us transition into our most productive and fulfilling era.
Greatness Is A Moving Target—your greatest days are yet to be! This past week, my oldest granddaughter Madeleine attended the Midwest Harp Academy in Tulsa. Since she was two years old she has wanted to play the harp. That desire continued to grow and finally, last year her mother enrolled her in harp lessons. Now, I wasn’t expecting much from a ten year old harpist—but I was pleasantly surprised! So you don’t think this is just “Pappy” talking, let me tell you that her instructors talked about how seriously she took her music, about how she applied herself and was able to master the most difficult pieces (including “Oklahoma”) that they gave her.
In just a few months, Madeleine had, according to one of the instructors “progressed beyond the level of most students at that stage of learning.” But is she content with such adulation? Not in the least, she has a new goal—to compete with and beat older harpist in the academy’s solo competition! She has already made arrangements to return next year. Now whether she achieves that goal or not is yet to be seen, but she knows she can’t rest on the degree of “greatness” that she has achieved. She knows that greater things await her, but that she must apply herself, practice her technique and work hard.
This same little goal-oriented positive thinker taught me a valuable lesson about “greatness being a moving target” several years ago. I have related this story a couple of times in previous Monday Mornings, but it bears repeating.
Madeleine, who has lived all of her ten years in the Dallas Metroplex, has spent at least one week with my wife and me during the summer. Several years ago, as was her custom, she accompanied me to my office where we would “work” and then enjoy a leisurely breakfast at Nelson’s. One morning, she was looking at several trophies that I had on display, as well as certificates that I had won for my public speaking prowess.
This being before she was able to read, she asked what they were for. Proudly, I began telling her all about the meaning behind each trophy and certificate. Waxing eloquent about each competition, I began to relive in my mind the feeling of exhilaration that the competition brought and the thrill of vanquishing those who dared compete against me! Yes, I was feeling good as I returned to those thrilling days of yesteryear!
Then, with the innocence of a child, she brought me up short. “Pappy” she said, “You used to be great, didn’t you?”
This brought me up short because I realized that most of those trophies and certificates were more than 15 years old. After she left, I put them in a box and there they remain, not because I’m ashamed of them or because they aren’t important to me, but because, like straight A’s on college graduates fourth grade report card they represent a foundation of accomplishment—not the greatness that is can be and is yet to come.
Those of us who have studied the lives of successful people know that in many cases their greatest achievements and accomplishments have come after age 55. For some, it was simply a matter of harnessing their lifetime of experience and focusing it on a specific goal. For others, it came as a result of being in a position financially to finally pursue their real passion. And for still others it resulted from a lifetime of learning that served as the underpinning for finding fresh challenges in a new career, starting a business, writing books or mentoring others.
The two common denominators for these over 55 achievers are that they realized that yesterday’s “greatness” must serve as the stepping stones to new goals not memorials to past achievements. And, that their past experience positioned them to make a larger contribution to the well-being of their families and to their community.
Regardless of your age, remember that greatness in anything is a moving target—yesterday and today’s success are not retirement villages, rather they are fueling stations along the road to greater satisfaction, accomplishment and fulfillment regardless of our age.
So, get a new vision of who you are today—analyze your core competencies based on what you’ve accomplished “yesterday”—and then set goals for tomorrow that are worthy of where you have been and compatible of where you know you can be.
Have a GREAT and profitable Week!
Robert Hidde
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