#5 Greatness vs. Improvement

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Since the beginning of my self-improvement journey, I always had this idea in mind of a point that I consider to be the destination I want to reach. That destination was greatness. To be great at life, with what I do and so on. There were a lot of idols in my mind that I consider having achieved this level of greatness like Bill Gates, Elon Musk and so on, and I also wanted to be where they are and become like how they have become.

It was very recently that I realized that aiming for greatness is a dumb idea and you should stop doing that as soon as possible. The thing about any person you consider to be great did not reach there by merely aiming for greatness and one day achieving it. They did it very gradually and patiently and they never had focused too much on greatness either. What they did was making improvements in the area that they wanted to be great at.

Greatness is only a product of a series of small and continuous improvements and I don’t really know I should use that term greatness because it is an illusion. There are only improvements in life and a series of lifelong improvements compounds is what made all the great people great.

Even if someone reaches a level of greatness in life, it doesn’t mean that they are above or below you or anyone else in the world. Nobody is special and nobody is equal. Everyone has problems and things that they want to achieve in life.

A good life is never running behind the delusion of greatness and blindly following the people who you consider to be great. Rather, what a good life is that of a life of small and continuous improvements. Whatever the area you want to excel in life, pause and reflect, and start making small improvements in that area or direction, and greatness will naturally follow you.

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