Greatness Means to Live Right Now

Greatness is a topic that has inspired my mind since I was in high school, and studied great minds such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Theodore Roosevelt, Ghandi, Einstein, and many others.

These people’s lives were a message to me that we can be two kinds of people at different times: great people, or mediocre people – and each day we get to choose what we will be.

As I studied “Self-Reliance” and “As a Man Thinketh” and “Anthem” and other classics, I felt closer to greatness in myself. Something I began to realize is that our agency and power grows or shrinks depending on if we choose to act, or react--if we choose to create and serve, or react and consume. We can be creators and contributors or something called a “nonage” which means to be a non-agent. A nonage is one who does not choose their own actions, but rather does whatever the external influences in life tell them to do.

Exceptionalism, it turns out, doesn’t come from blindly rebelling against laws and principles, even if that's what everyone else is doing. Exceptional people are those who pay the price to do hard things, right now.

They don’t procrastinate their greatness to some future day “when I’m rich…” or something along those lines. They live right now. When I was in high school the feeling was, “when I graduate, then my life will begin.” Although in some ways that is true, I see that I was already living, and in many ways more meaningfully than I did after I graduated.

When I went on a mission I looked forward to when I was home, all the things I would do. But I missed that I was already living, with people, and opportunities to create and serve, right here, where I am right now.

In college there is also a general feeling among many students, myself included, that your life will begin after you graduate. Perhaps that’s you also. Or maybe you are a mom or dad, and you’re feeling that once the kids get older, you can start doing something more in your life. But whether you are a highschooler, or college student, or older adult, the message I have for you is to live right now. Don’t wait! Don’t wait until you graduate. Don’t wait until circumstances change. Don’t wait for anything! Just act now. Every little thought and action towards a desirable outcome will bring you a little closer to it. And what you consistently move towards, you’ll reach eventually. Like little seeds dropped today, and a little water each day after that, a little bit will become a lot in the end.

Start now to live by what you know. Do what you can. Use what you have. Be who you are. Create something. Serve someone. Today. Right now.

What we become is based on what we do, not what happens to us. Take 100% responsibility for your actions right now and stop blaming the time of your life, your circumstances, or your limited abilities.  It doesn’t matter how old you are, how many times you’ve tried and failed, what you’ve been through, or what you’ve done wrong. It’s a new day today. You can make new choices. You can start from where you are, and move towards what you want to become, and what you want to create.

Take the wheel and start the engine, because life is a journey that starts with you, right here, right now.