Hey. Welcome to the Stephanie Stephens Show where
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Alright.
Today, I wanna talk about greatness, and I
wanna talk about that because there's these little
things going on. You might have heard. They're
called the Olympics,
and it's where the world's best athletes get
together and compete for championship medals. And people
have essentially worked their entire lives
for these tiny little handful of moments. It's
pretty profound when you think about it. That
leads me to today's topic and that is
greatness.
I wanted to talk about greatness
because greatness is subjective.
We have some idea of what it means
and we hold people up on grand pedestals
when we believe that they are great. And
when we watch people do extraordinary things, and
when someone has perfected,
I mean absolutely perfected something,
a sport, a skill, an art, we stand
in awe because we understand and know that
it took an incredible amount of discipline and
time and effort and energy and work. And
sometimes we can take a look at whatever
we're engaged in and we can think, is
this really very significant?
But my friend, it is all about the
ripple effect. How many athletes were pro athletes
for a moment in time
and then years later, oh, completely unrecognized.
That's because greatness is not in the one
great and amazing thing that we do.
It is in the seeds that we sow
and the ripple effect over time that is
going to yield a beautiful harvest. Why? Because
it's gonna impact so many people.
The inspiration is going to go on and
on. The motivation, the compassion, or the assistance
that we've actually provided,
the good that we've given will come back
tenfold.
That, my friend, is absolute greatness.
What is your greatness? What are you sowing
into the rest of the world that is
going to have tremendous
beautiful yields and returns?
It's not a one time event.
Our goal is not to be a one
hit wonder here. It is to really cultivate
something that has meaning,
not only here, but in the long term,
for generations to come that is eternal.
Now, that may feel very lofty,
but you have something
that you are here on this planet for
to offer other people for that exact reason.
We're here to make an imprint.
So while some people have sports, they may
not ever be able to run a business.
That may be you. You may be the
one with the greatness as it relates to
being able to start a business, run a
business, have brilliant
ideas,
write code, coach others how to make money,
give unabashedly,
I mean, whatever it is that your specific
greatness is,
you didn't land on this planet without something
to work with. What is that that you
can tap into right now? And as we
watch others in their moment and moments of
greatness, I wonder what that can look like
for us. I wonder if we might allow
that to inspire
us to recognize
I have something that most others don't have.
What is that thing, or what are those
things, and how can I now make the
biggest splash with the biggest ripple effect that
will touch lives in a beneficial way?
You know, the other interesting thing about pursuing
your own specific greatness rather than somebody else's
is that it's really fun. It's really fun
when you are doing the thing that God
gave you naturally, that it comes easy to
you but is more difficult to somebody else
and you've taken that thing, then you have
sown your own time and your own energy
and your heart and soul and blood, sweat,
and tears into that thing to expand it
and to perfect it or to cause it
to be excellent, it's
fun.
You hit that zone, baby, and it is
just like free flowing. And that's actually very
personally rewarding in and of itself. I mean,
you're in parting to others, but you're also
feeding yourself. You're feeding your soul. You're feeding
your need to be creative and to continue
to create, grow, and expand because that is
one of the 6 human needs. One of
them is we have to keep on growing
in order to really feel satisfied in life.
And, you know, speaking of fun, I really
got a glimpse of this when I was
watching 1 of the gymnasts. I caught a
routine and it was very haphazardly. I wasn't
intending to catch this specific men's gymnastics routine,
but it caught my eye because the event
was on in the background. And I glanced
over at the television and I noticed a
young man sitting there with glasses on, on
the team seats with his eyes closed.
Everybody else was jumping around, clapping their hands,
pumping their fists, you know, really trying to
get the crowd activated
and keep the adrenaline pumping.
And this one young man
was slated to go last. His name is
Steven. He's from the US team. And Steven
didn't
move.
He didn't flinch.
He didn't look around.
Steven was in his very own bubble in
his very own world.
And I could tell
what Steven was doing.
Steven was sitting there inside his head and
inside of his body,
running his routine to perfection
over
and over and over again. He was not
gonna look to the left or right. He
was not gonna see what the other team
just did. He wasn't gonna look up at
the scoreboard to see the score that just
came in.
Steven was in his zone, and it required
him to go inside, shut out the rest
of the world, close his eyes, and sit
as still as a statue. And as soon
as I glanced over and saw this young
man with his eyes closed, I knew, boy,
there he is. Look at him. He is
inside running his game. This kid has his
mind game all the way right. He is
inside running that routine,
he is imagining
every toe point, muscle flex,
joint movement, head turn. He's imagining what that
pummel horse feels like underneath his hands. He's
imagining the grip, the strength of his grip.
He is imagining
the straight line rotation at the very end
before the dismount. He is imagining his 2
feet
planting down and absorbing the ground as though
he were landing into cement
perfectly straight with his arms up and then
he was envisioning and imagining
the crowd going bananas, a nearly perfect score
coming up, and his own
joy and enthusiasm
and excitement and pure unadulterated
bliss of that winning triumphant moment.
And he was doing all of that before
he ever stood up out of his seat.
That's a champion, my friend.
That's how the game is played, and that
is how the game is won. He won
it mentally first.
He incorporated
his emotions,
seeing that scene, playing it out as he
wanted it to be. And then when he
stood up, he didn't smile. He didn't flinch.
He just stood up. He got right up
to the apparatus,
took his glasses off, handed him to the
coach, got up there, and did it. And
he did it nearly
perfectly,
yielded him a high score.
And because of his performance,
his team was able to medal first time
in 16 years, and that's really all they
wanted to be able to accomplish until, of
course, the individuals come around. And he's got
a chance to do it all over again
for an individual medal.
But he did what he needed to do
in the moment, and that was his greatness.
His greatness went beyond the moment. His greatness
started with his ability to shut the outside
world all the way out. And, I mean,
the world is watching.
Outside world all the way out. And I
mean, the world is watching.
His ability to shut the world out, close
his eyes, go within, and run that over
and over to perfection in his mind, and
then get out, step straight into it, and
execute exactly as he saw it, and exactly
as he's done it, probably 100 of times
before.
That. Now that is greatness. But here's the
icing on the cake. Everybody's mics were hot,
of course, as he was coming off that
apparatus,
And the first thing that came out of
his mouth was, that was so much fun.
The practice, the work,
the time, all led up to those few
moments. And that young man, because he prepared
mentally and emotionally, of course, and physically, it
goes without saying, He was able in his
zone, in his greatness, he was able to
enjoy it.
Now that, my friend, really is the epitome
of success. To do something with greatness and
to enjoy it while you're doing it. Not
just to execute it to get it over
with, not just to go through the motions
to hurry up and be done so that
you can take a big sigh of relief.
No. The point is
to master that mental game so that when
you're called upon and when you step into
your zone, you are doing it with bliss.
That, my friend, is mastery.
I'm inspired.
I hope you are too. I'm with you
in it. As always, here's to greatness
as we pursue it one day at a
time together. Thanks as always for listening.
Much love to you, and I can't wait
to see you on the next episode.
Thanks so much for listening to the Stephanie
Stevens show. Please remember to subscribe so we
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