Reflections on The Six Enemies of Greatness and Happiness
These six factors can erode the grandest of plans and the noblest of intentions:
(Jessica Hagy, FORBES.COM, http://www.forbes.com/sites/jessicahagy/2012/02/28/the-six-enemies-of-greatness-and-happiness/)
1) Availability
We often settle for what’s available, and what’s available isn’t always great. “Because it was there,” is an okay reason to climb a mountain, but not a very good reason to take a job or a free sample at the supermarket.
2) Ignorance
If we don’t know how to make something great, we simply won’t. If we don’t know that greatness is possible, we won’t bother attempting it. All too often, we literally do not know any better than good enough.
3) Committees
Nothing destroys a good idea faster than a mandatory consensus. The lowest common denominator is never a high standard.
4) Comfort
Why pursue greatness when you’ve already got 324 channels and a recliner? Pass the dip and forget about your grand designs.
5) Momentum
If you’ve been doing what you’re doing for years and it’s not-so-great, you are in a rut. Many people refer to these ruts as careers.
6) Passivity
There’s a difference between being agreeable and agreeing to everything. Trust the little internal voice that tells you, “this is a bad idea.”
What a great message for a new year. It makes me think of the saying: we cannot have a new start but we can start now for a new finish. Loved it.
Great advise, wish it was longer for more!
Wow! I can see one of each of these in different aspects of my life. Now to know is to not be ignorant 😉
So often I let the joys of life and new adventure pass by me simply because I am comfortable with where I am at and what I am doing. I tend to think negative when it comes to the availability of things. I see what is in front of me and think that is the only option and settle for it. How boring of a life this can lead to! I think it is in our human nature to settle for what is available and what we feel comfortable with. There are many times I wish I could go back and tell myself to just do it! So what if you end up hating whatever it is you’re about to do. At least you could say you tried something new! I think we all should strive to live with more passion in our lives. We might end up outside our comfort zone and actually enjoying it!
One of my favorite graph is number four, comfort. It really is true that laziness takes over very quickly when we are comfortable where we are. This showed me that in a way, the more comfortable we are the more likely we will have more opportunity and more chances to grow.
I feel like our own “comfort zone” is perhaps the greatest enemy of greatness. I am not sure what it is about humans but we love our comfort zones, that is where we thrive and want to stay. However, I often ponder this thought when thinking about “comfort zones”, you cant progress in your comfort zone and when you are progressing it usually isn’t comfortable. We hold ourselves back from greatness because we want instant ease an pleasure. If we want to be truly great and happy we must give up temporary comfort and always strive to learn and grow in areas that are uncomfortable to us.
i feel like this one spoke to me quite a bit. I liked the pictures they were very descriptive in themselves. I tend to not listen to myself and just people please, this has caused me to spend a ton of time not doing the things that I love and allowing myself to just become agreeable and comfortable like a frog slowly boiling in a pot.
These were very interesting to read, and yet I’m a bit surprised at how some of these are actually true in real life, like the “Ignorance” and “Comfort” parts.
I think this article in its simplicity very cogently expressed the ups and downs that come with life and then articulated what must be done to pull out of those ‘downs’ to find more ‘ups’. It’s always our choice on how we choose to live.
I love these six things! They are so true! The two that really hit me were ignorance and comfort! There is the clique and not very true saying about “ignorance is bliss” I truly believe that in most cases it is best to try to find happiness, instead of being satisfied with good enough. This goes along with the comfort point because a lot of people feel comfortable and feel this means they don’t need to try to do more. Many times this is just as bad as promoting sadness, because typically the comfort will become boring, and lead to sadness.
I found these “enemies” really relevant to how they are affecting my happiness and my greatest. Especially the diagram about Passivity, I say those phrases quite often.
Very motivating and encouraging. As a college student, this principles are essential. As every college student is preparing for their future, these 6 lessons can help us with a new job, our degree, our everyday communication, and our integrity.
These are great! Comfort is something that stood out to me the most. I feel like the more we desire for change, the less comfortable situations can become. Comfort is something that we all look forward to, but the desire to change will be out of the comfort zone a bit.
Change and improvement is never easy, you have to be willing to put in time and effort to accomplish anything. These six “enemies” are a great tool to be aware of what to look out for. Also I think it’s interesting that greatness and happiness are lumped together, perhaps they are one and the same thing. For someone who can truly say they are happy with no “buts” or “ifs” is so rare and is definitely a great thing.
Sometimes it is so difficult to understand that we can do more. Of course, some individuals can see a better opportunity a bit easier than others, but sometimes you need to have the courage to try something new, that would make you happier. It is really easy to settle for what’s available.
Communication is so much fun when there are graphs involved! All of these are especially relevant to…well, I guess basically most parts of life. I had an issue with the whole “momentum” thing for a while (until I broke my own mold and decided to go back to college, that is.)