Greatness: As I tried to explain to you before, people start out making me a lofty endeavor and find the residual is much too high. They usually end up settling for a less grandiose version of me. Remember that kid you went to high school with? Me and him seemed destined to meet. Then he had that kid with the girl he was in love with.
Sacrifice: Yeah…that was my fault. I told him his payment to me was getting rid of her. He didn’t want to pay. You see where he’s at now…
Compromise: Don’t let these guys scare you. Everything you do with life can be balanced. Sure it might require you to be a little more stressed than usual, but there are plenty of situations where I’ll be there.
Sacrifice: I hate this guy.
Compromise: *smirks* Anyway, while you’re on the path to Greatness, you will have to give up certain things. That’s true. Just realize most of the things you have to give up, also have a chance to be given back. Everything isn’t always black and white. Life also has shades of gray.
G: Yeah, but Sacrifice was talking as if I had to give up my first born in order to pursue Greatness.
Sacrifice: Maybe not your first born, but there are people you start out with who will not make it with you on the journey. It’ll come down between what YOU really want and what THEY really want. And picking what YOU want will make it so they can no longer co-exist with your current trajectory.
G: …
Greatness: I’m afraid he’s right son. When Snoop said he paid the cost to be the boss, that wasn’t just a cute rap quote to sell records. People have done many things to find me. Some people never regret the decisions they made. Some people regret ALL the decisions they made.
Compromise: Even when dealing with me, you have to understand I require payment as well. Maybe not your first born, but there are parts of yourself and your personality you will have to give up. Truthfully, you can consider me the little brother to Sacrifice. There are things that I will ask of you, you will not be willing to give up. And honestly, you can’t follow my lead every time the opportunity comes up. Chasing Greatness will undoubtedly change you and unfortunately, those changes aren’t always for the better.
G: So why hasn’t anybody ever sat me down to explain this to me before? I mean, everybody knows I want to be great and I’m doing everything I possibly can to achieve that. Everybody’s just been patting me on the back but they haven’t explained the veracity of what I’m undertaking. Why?
Greatness: Because most people who set out to meet me never finish their journey…
Sacrifice: …or they think they can cheat the system, but I’m the Uncle Sam of this shit. And Uncle Sam ALWAYS gets his money…
Compromise: …and truthfully, some people never have anybody to tell them so they have to learn for themselves. Much like you had to and are continuing to do right now.
G: So how do I know whether I should keep pushing or I should just chalk up my losses and go home?
Greatness: Because in order to be truly great, you know that you will have to take some wins and some losses. You figure out what you can deal with and when it goes too far, that’s where you draw the line.
G: You said a whole lot of nothing just now.
Greatness: Tough break bro. Remember, just because it doesn’t cost you money doesn’t mean it didn’t cost you something. The reason nobody knows how much it costs to reach me is because the cost differs for each person. It’s up to you to find the cost you can live with. Should a day arrive when you feel it is too expensive…when you’ve paid more than your share of blood/sweat/tears or you’ve seen too many relationships and friendships waste away…or the day you find yourself meeting me and you realize you have nobody to share it with…
…Let’s just say the journey is half the battle and meeting me is not nearly as sweet if you have to do it on your own.
—
RealGoesRight is a freelance writer, law graduate and lover of all things Jay-Z and Radiohead. He’s just here to write things which he believes will make a difference in the lives of the people who will read it.
Loved it!!
"Compromise: Don’t let these guys scare you. Everything you do with life can be balanced. Sure it might require you to be a little more stressed than usual, but there are plenty of situations where I’ll be there."
.. a little more stressed means you are giving up peace to Sacrifice as well.
I have passed up greatness because on one hand I am lazy, but on the other I don't care. I want to be able to take a day off and just chill by the lake and read. I want to be able to have days where my head isn't splitting, or to be able to sleep 8 hours.
I've sacrificed greatness for my own health and sanity.
But I consider the 'little' that I do..is pretty great in itself. Sometimes 'greatness' means different things.
Awesome post though! 🙂
My recent post Are you ready for the November 2012 Election?
Interesting. I don’t think I’ve ever taken the time to consider or dwell on what a journey to greatness is really like from the perspective of sacrifice and compromise. I realizied I was doing it but I never truly comprehended it because I was so in tune with the urge to keep pushing forward. Willpower and mental strength were a lot of the times what I felt most and was therefore what kept me motivated. I feel a pull. Anytime I wanted to stop or quit or give up I would feel a pull telling me to respect myself and keep going and this isn’t the top yet and this isn’t where I tap out. This isn’t where it ends for me there’s still so much farther to go. and at any cost, any means necessary — morality intact — I would have to satiate that pull inside me. Chasing perfection too. It was not enough to just be great I had to be so flawlessly. I’ve lost so much because of it. I’ve missed out on so much. I’ve not had experiences that makes a human being a human and I sacrificed so many things to feel what it’s like to know what I’m capable of. I just wanted to know how high, how far I could ascend and even though I’m alone in the end, sometimes I flicker between panic and I get really distraught. and because I really was not paying attention to what I was doing to myself I nosedived. I have my moments of emotional breakdown when I get REALLY upset but for the most part, I have a sense of calm and acceptance. It truly was worth it. I feel accomplished. I know me. I trust me. People tell me ALL the time it isn’t healthy how I isolate myself but then I’m like….but YOU aren’t going to help me and who can? You have to rise with me. and no one ever does.
Most of the posts I read from you had me scratching my head and looking around to see how Anyone could Understand and deal with you, but reading your latest comment I can Relate to your mindset- a Little…..
I'm in the same boat as far as Lost, Sacrificed, and Went Without in pursuit of what Greatness is for Myself, but I Can SayI have a Few ppl that have Assisted and Help me on my journey
Finally, a comment that makes sense, Thank you!!! And its a fine line, I guess you have your priorities on whats more important to you.
Yo, this was definitely a great read. Sacrifice and Compromise have definitely played a major role in my life and still do. When you really understand those two, you are unstoppable. This should be posted for every man and woman who are in pursuit of their dreams must definitely read.
To get slightly deep, people change their definition of Greatness during the journey because their idea of Greatness changes with each like phase. The journey sometimes has an effect on the desired destination. I'm grappling with this right now, and realized my idea of Greatness has certainly changed, and yet, doesn't feel like "a lesser version". It just feels more apropos to the life I've continued to live. I never was one to believe any one thing required 100% of your attention, because if one thing should, it should be the fullness and joy in your life, in my opinion.
I know I'm a day or two late, but I really enjoyed this.
My recent post Understanding Bayes’ Theorem
I really like the part about loosing your friends once you made up your mind to embark the path of great that is honestly what is goin on with me right now. Will Smith Said, "Look at your friends if they aren't going anywhere most likely you're not going to go anywhere." I really took that to heart because I evaluated my friends saw that they were not going any where it was hard cause some of them were with me in hard times but I had to cut them off and sure enough everything turned around for me. So I know its hard but if you want to achieve greatness and the people you surround yourself with don't see eye to eye they are dead weight.