Either Be Good or Be Great

Excellence is doing one's best beyond what one usually can achieve. This has been a point of interest since I was a child. What matters for me is motivating myself to excel in any endeavour to achieve the dream I desire to have. I could say I gave all my best and relatively got almost everything I wanted in life. From the period when food seems scarce to this particular time in my life is a great achievement, partly because of excellence but not entirely. Why? Excellence is supposed to cause this remarkable feat. This is the focus of this blogpost.

This is not to underestimate excellence but it, in reality, does not guarantee success. In fact, not everyone who gave their best made some significant progress in life. This is frustrating for everyone seemed to have learned of doing their best. However, some would argue that at least excellence does something significant to their lives. But I argue what is that something? One must justify its worth versus the effort one exerted.

Moreover, excellence is not easy. This makes excellence exclusive to those who are considered genuinely hardworking. I assume only a handful could claim to be such. It is almost impossible for everyone to dedicate one's mind and body to certain goal and work  for it. There are some who are better than others, but that itself is not sufficient to say they are excellent. This makes excellence realistic, rare and almost impossible. In fact, there are more successful people in the world than those who truly adhered with the philosophy of excellence.

Wouldn't it be intriguing to discredit excellence? What if success is a matter of chance? Few have it and the majority does not get it, regardless of what level of excellence they have exerted. What I am trying to state here is not excellence is not categorically linked to success, because success exists as a separate entity from excellence. One can excel, but not successful. Some are successful, but they did not excel in any field.

So what I am proposing here. What can man do to be successful? Honestly, there is none. However, in a man's life, one must decide whether to be good or to be great. I am not talking about the effort one has to give to ensure being either good or great. Generally, an individual must decide to set his or her mind on either pursuing greatness or maintaing a good state. There is no stress. Decide and choose what mindset one will be in. If you become great, coincidentally even you have focused yourself to be only good, then that is the power of chance. One can not argue about that. No one in this world can attempt to challenge a judicial body why the other is successful and one is not.

Perhaps, one might think that being great is better than being good. Not necessarily. One must not compare the two, because they are not opposites and essentially, there is no point of its comparison, knowing none of two could guarantee success. Success is the ultimate goal, but we leave that to chance, not with excellence. There are advantages of setting one's mind on being great and so the being good is.

Being good is a state of natural exertion of effort by an individual. Nothing motivates to perform better, but there is also nothing that discourages one. Being good is relatively subjective. One's good state maybe the other's best. In short, only the person could say whether there was extraordinary effort there. Naturally, being good does not yield stress, but this does not provide one the benefit of attention brought about by exemplary performance.

On the other hand, being great is setting one's mind and body to a state of unusual stress to meet the desire of meeting and covering up a deficient life aspect. In school, students compete and strive to be the best. The achievement one gets give one the social immunity, attention and perks in some ways. This forms the benefits of being great. Moreover, motivating one's self is itself a form of forcing one's self against its will to ensure success. There is no clear line between coercion and motivation, such that being great means compromising one's freedom and personal id. Thus, an inevitable sacrifice us needed to become great.

So know, what is the point? Life is not about success, rather happiness. One does not need to be great to be successful. There is no way to ensure success and that sacrifice is not always a requirement to either be happy and successful. What can man do is only decide day by day either to be good or great, not expecting anything as a reward thereafter.

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