The key to greatness is selflessness. You achieve true greatness when you understand that at the highest levels of achievements and accomplishments, life is no longer about you. Selfishness and an unhealthy obsession with one’s personal advancement is actually an impediment on the road to greatness. It will be very hard to identify anyone operating at the highest realms of life that remains obsessed with themselves. Ideally, one seeks political offices for a chance to serve and not to be served. A study of billionaires would reveal to you that they are driven by certain ideals that goes beyond money, the money is just a nice-to-have side effect.
But Jesus called them to him and said, “You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. It shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, and whoever would be first among you must be your slave, even as the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”
Matt 20:25-28 (ESV)
Unless you truly understand what it means to be selfless and embrace service as a core value, you will not be able to unlock the doors of greatness. Selflessness and a heart for service will bring you into better alignment with the greater good and common good. This is something that often conflicts with selfish interests and personal pursuits, but once you rid your soul of all that, the purity that is left transforms you into a true agent of God. A vessel through which the greater good can be championed. Your watch truly begins the day you set aside your selfish interests and begin to seek the betterment of the world you are watching over.
That is when your good life begins to morph into a great one.
