Own Your Greatness

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

~Marianne Williamson

Is there something you are good at? Do you aspire to be better at it than you already are and strive to be better at it than anyone else? Do you find that your drive to succeed is also mixed with self-doubt and negative self-talk? If so, then it’s time to change the way you think.

Believe in Yourself

If you expect to succeed you must believe in yourself. Football fans everywhere learned this lesson in February 2008, after what has now become a historic Super Bowl game: The New England Patriots versus the New York Giants Giants. That season, the Patriots defeated every opponent they played, achieving 16 straight wins to become the first NFL team to do so since the 1972 Miami Dolphins.

Many, if not most, believed Giants’ quarterback Eli Manning, a Super Bowl rookie, did not stand a chance against Super Bowl vet Tom Brady and his unstoppable Pats. In fact some had called for Manning’s ousting as they believed his performance was lackluster. Further, the Giants made it to the Super Bowl as a wildcard team.

On that infamous Sunday, it seemed the Patriots were closing in on yet another Super Bowl win. With one minute and fifteen seconds left in the game, the Giants trailed the Pats by 4 points. Manning narrowly avoided being sacked and completed a 32-yard pass to his wide receiver, David Tyree, who made an unbelievable leaping catch by pinning the ball on his helmet (see video). With the clock ticking and 35 seconds to spare, New York wide receiver Plaxico Burress caught the ball for a winning touchdown! The Giants were declared Super Bowl XLII champions and the game went down as one of the biggest Super Bowl upsets.

Manning had owned his greatness on the field. Later in an interview, Manning said about his team’s unbelievable win, “I never stopped believing in myself.”

Pairing Passion with Belief

As any great leader will tell you, believing in yourself also means being passionate about what you do. If your goal is to become a writer, then you must be passionate about writing. In the fact-based movie, The Soloist, Jamie Foxx brilliantly plays Nathaniel Anthony Ayers, Jr., a gifted, albeit mentally ill, musician man with a profound passion for music. Despite being mentally ill and homeless, Ayers’ passion for music never dies and his talent as a cellist stays with him. After a reporter discovers Ayers and decides to do a story on him, the reporter declares, “I have never loved anything the way he loves music!”

Whether you are an athlete, a writer, or a musician, know that owning your greatness means being passionate about what you do and believing in yourself. In the words of Epectitus, a Greek philosopher, “What concerns me is not the way things are, but rather the way people think things are. If you think you are capable, you’ll act that way. It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. As you think, so you are.”