The mindset of greatness (3), By Sunday Adelaja

There are formulas behind the predictability of life. If we would take our time to study and research on the factors that are responsible for any accomplishment, then we open a way for us doing or repeating the same thing. However, knowing the factors of success alone is not enough. Any aspirant must also be willing to put in the work, the discipline and pay the price necessary to produce the same result as his predecessors.

“Great men are true men, the men in whom nature have succeeded. They are not extraordinary – they are in the true order. It is the other species of men who are not what they ought to be.” – Henri Frederic Amiel

There are two main facets of this predictability to life. One is the discovering of the secrets of success; the secrets, the principles and the formulas behind a given achievement. If you know those principles, you must also be determined to pay the price of self-discipline, change, pain and perseverance that would be necessary to reproduce the same result you have admired. That makes life predictable and it brings any great achievement to the realm of ordinary mortals. What I am trying to say is, any human being, by following certain models or formulas, can easily reproduce any result that he has seen others produce. He must also be willing to discipline himself and work in similar ways or more as those who have produced a similar result in the past.

At a time in our human evolution and development, people use to think that only certain God endowed individuals could read talk less of write. This so called Greeaaatt feat used to be reserved only for the chosen! It never occurred to people who lived several centuries before us that a time would come when any human being would be able to repeat that same Greeaaatt feat. The ability to read and write today, is no more looked upon as some form of a supernatural gift. It is rather seen as something so simple and mundane that only the very illiterate and most backward of human race still don’t possess the ability to read and write.

So, what changed everything? Everything was changed by the predictability of life. As soon as the rules of reading and writing were discovered, alphabets were invented. After the alphabets, it’s only a matter of discipline for anybody who wishes to read and write to learn the skills. Friends, life becomes predictable when we know the rules, the formula and are willing to pay the price for it.

The same example could be given of driving. About a hundred years ago, only chosen men. Men that were regarded as specially gifted were able to drive cars and automobiles. We know that story is different today. Even in remote countries of Africa, anyone who desires could learn to drive. Why such a huge disparity between our understanding now and the understanding of our grandparents who lived a hundred years ago? Again, we are talking of the predictability of life. This is the third factor of greatness that we are examining today. When it comes to driving, the emergence of driving schools totally revolutionised the world’s thinking. What did the driving schools do? They came up with the algorithms, formulas by which the process of driving was systematised into concrete steps that could be easily duplicated. This principle applies to everything in life including greatness. Greatness just like life itself could be predictable.

“Doing what needs to be done may not make you happy, but it will make you great.” ― George Bernard Shaw

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to challenge you to begin to convince yourself that just as God in his word said “everything is possible to him that believes” so also will everything become possible to you as you believe that greatness is not beyond your reach.

We would go further to explore more on factors that lead to greatness. We have now discovered that factors like time, mentality, predictability of life, play a role in men and women becoming great in life.

The next factor of greatness is the factor of secrets. Whenever you see any accomplishment, you should always bear in mind that those accomplishments are there because of some secrets. Any accomplishment is a result of secrets known and discovered. For anything to have been accomplished by man on the earth, that means the person behind that accomplishment had earlier discovered a few secrets. Secrets are the factor behind every great accomplishment in life. Most often what separates us from those men we admire, is simply the secrets that they have discovered.

Greatness my dear readers, is a possibility for you, if you will be willing to pay the price necessary to discover secrets of greatness. So, our journey in adventure of greatness continues. Great men are men who know something that others don’t know. Great men are men who have discovered secrets. It is thanks to those secrets that they now have the different mentality that they have. It is thanks to their discovered secrets that they have a different attitude to life. It is thanks to these secrets; we admire them and sing their praises.  In our age it is becoming more and more simpler to discover these secrets in various spheres of life thanks to the abundance of information all around us.

The internet is a great resource for any hungry adventurer and explorer. Behind every great success or achievement are great secrets. Find out the secrets and you can become whatever you wish to become.

Ladies and gentlemen, as I continue to provide for you the factors of greatness, I want you to know that these factors are actually the secrets we are talking about. Of course, you might need to discover more secrets depending on what aspect of life you are looking at.

Another factor that great men and women have discovered is that success and greatness is not the working of superstitions. Success is not a mystery.  Too many people today in our world treat greatness as if it’s a factor of luck. Others go to the extent of attributing it to a factor of religious piousness. But we all know that Bill Gates, the richest man in the world is not the greatest prayer warrior around. The last I heard, Carlos Slim Helu doesn’t go on a forty-day dry fast yearly.  If we say it is religious uprightness that determines greatness, I wonder what is happening to all these millions of Christians we have in our churches. I have not seen too many of them on the list of great people of our world recently. No, my dear! Greatness is not a mystery neither is it a superstition. Greatness is a matter of principles. If you know the secrets and follow the principles, you can attain greatness in your chosen field of life.

“When you are destined for greatness, it shows in everything you do. It becomes you. Greatness becomes you.” ― Lorii Myers,

Sunday Adelaja is a Nigerian born leader, transformation strategist, pastor and innovator. He was based in Ukraine.