Great State of Mind
If you’ve read the header then you see that this site is a music+life+style site. I’ve had it in my mind for sometime now that I’d like to create a lifestyle website that incorporated these 3 elements, so here it is. This blog, Ginger’s Guide to Greatness addresses the life part, so let’s get started with my first post shall we.
Okay so the name of this blog implies big things, I mean “greatness” and all. I don’t want you to be intimidated by the word though, I want you to be driven by it, and I want you to discover your own definition of it. If you take nothing else away from this blog, I want you to define your definition of greatness.
So, what is greatness? Webster’s defines greatness as: Great´ness
n.1.The state, condition, or quality of being great; as, greatness of size, greatness of mind, power, etc.2.Pride; haughtiness.It is not of pride or greatness that he cometh not aboard your ships.- Bacon.
There you have it, pretty simple right, just means being great, but did you catch that part in the middle, “greatness of mind”, or as the blog title states, “Great State of Mind,” that’t the part, the deep part we are going to focus on. Not too deep mind you, I’m a writer, not your therapist.
My personal journey to greatness is an every changing and winding road, and if you had asked me about 5 years ago if I was living a great life, I would have told you no. I would have told you that I was barely making it, and being honest I would have told you that was entirely my fault. My own life choices an state of mind were causing me to live a not-great life. I was consistently focusing on the negative; how much I didn’t have, instead of how much I did have, which frankly was a lot, but I’m not sure it was greatness a lot, it was just more than some people have. I had a roof, food, health, etc.. so not much to complain about, but I was missing something. I was missing the “greatness” factor in my life and full sense of purpose. So I set about to learn how I could achieve it.
I started reading blogs (like this one, okay I know I know,) and I read self-help books which are the silliest oxymoron ever. Then I watched YouTube videos and read books, quotes and inspirational message by Tony Robbins, Chalene Johnson, that Girl Wash Your Face lady and Zig Zigler, etc… if there was a book on how to set goals, meet and achieve them, I own it and have read at least most of it.
Now, I’m not going to knock any of it, because there is some good stuff in those over-priced gems of success maps, there really are. If you happen to be pressed for money or time or just don’t like to read or watch videos set to seriously zealous pump you up music, then I’ll tell you a secret about all of these books, videos, etc… they are all selling the same message in different mouths. “You are your own obstacle and you are your own, “guide to greatness.” Hey! Wait a second, isn’t that what this blog is called, are you saying that you are also regurgitating the same rhetoric in a different way. Well, maybe a little, but in realty, no! I’m not going to charge you, I’m not going to wax poetic about 100’s of success stories that talk about Mr. Jones having one dollar in February and by skin or luck, or magic beans, had one million by December. I’m also not going to tell you that you didn’t work hard enough, or dream big enough, or find magic bean resources enough to make your plans, dreams, etc… a reality, and that’s why you’re not living your greatest life, I don’t know you, so I’m not going to judge you, and even I did I wouldn’t, I have much cooler things to do with my time, like write this blog.
So, why did I keep reading and watching? Well, I do see the benefit in learning from people that are doing well at what you would like to be doing. For me, professionally, that is being a successful musician, songwriter, and writer(not songs.) and public speaker. Personally it’s being a good parent, friend, sister, daughter, etc… so I see value in taking lessons from these people that we are familiar with and creating my own greatness plan from it. Did you catch that part? “My own greatness plan.” I can’t be successful like Tony Robbins or Rachel Hollis or Beyonce, for one very simple reason, I AM NOT THEM! Step one in creating my greatness plan, realizing that it has to be MY PLAN, designed by and for me, nobody else. Not to say I can’t take a few tools and lessons an apply them, but ultimately I had to stop beating myself up because following all the steps from lifestyle gurus was not working, I mean I got better at time management, and I make killer vision boards, but other than that, what had worked for them and “countless others” just didn’t work for me. Instead of staying in the negative or beating myself up, I switched gears realized that it would probably never work because I’m not them (duh) and changed my mind about how I was going to define my greatness.
WHAT DID I DO?
I quit with the buzz word mentality, “find your purpose, define your purpose, serve your purpose.” “only you can create your own success or prevent forest fires” Blah, blah, blah. What purpose? Kids, family, dog, quest for the perfect jean? Eh, all of that’s cool,I guess, to say, “Oh, I work 90 hours a week building something because of my kids, aren’t I amazing,” or “I do this because I want to rescue baby salamanders for the last 30 years of my life so I’m working super hard to be retired by 50” etc… I’m not saying purposes are bad, just hyper inflated reasoning, in my opinion. It’s okay if your purpose is that you like to eat and you like the people you love to also eat. It’s okay if your purpose is to be famous, it’s okay for your purpose to not be a life affirming inspiration to others, it’s okay to not even have one, because having one or not having one won’t hinder you from living you a great life, but what will, is believing that you can’t achieve greatness without one. You wanna know the secret to living a great life, LIVING YOUR LIFE!
That’s it, when I say your life, I mean your life. Not the one your parents want you to live or your high school guidance counselor, or that little pre-programmed voice in your head telling you that you’re doing it wrong. You have to do what fits your life. For so many people that is following a traditional life path, college, career, marriage, kids, etc… and for many others its being an artist, backpacking through Europe, or raising salamanders. Wanna start a business, do it. Want to work in middle management, do it. Want to write songs, own a boat, etc…do it. Or at least attempt to do it. Oh yeah, that’ s the other part. Sometimes, and usually most of the time, you won’t achieve the exact goal you set out to achieve. You might have to adapt your goal to your life circumstances at the moment, because boats are expensive and there are lots of really good song writers, but that doesn’t mean it can’t be a goal. If you keep your mind right and realize, “hey, at least I’m trying” is actually good enough, then you’re still killing it, you’re still living a great life and your working on that greatness.
In the next few weeks I'm going to share why I feel like I’m really living my greatest lift right now. I’m not rich, I don’t own a house, Honda still finances my car, I work a day job and gig (play music) 3-4 times a week, I rarely cook (even though I’m super good at it,) don’t work out as much as I should and real talk have about 25 pounds I need to lose (that’s going to be another blog!) But here I am, killing it, doing it, every single day.
I’m living my greatest life and I want you to live your greatest life too. So stay tuned each week for Ginger’s Guide to Greatness and take this greatness journey with me!
