Do You Desire Greatness?

[sayak83]

As illustrated through scripture, the people who God relates to and uses to do his will often are people who have a desire for greatness, whether it was Abraham and Isaac through lineage or Moses through a promised land.

That was a different time, and greatness should no longer be identified through lineage or land, but what was being represented still remains. It’s the desire to have a meaningful, lasting impact well into the future. I’m wondering what percent of people here identify with this idea.

I desire excellence, not greatness.
Greatness is a desire of establishing socially recognised superiority over others in something.
Excellence is a desire of internally improving and perfecting a set of skills or activities that you do without worrying about your standing in society.

To make a rather simple point of it:
Dumbledore (eventually) settled for excellence while Voldemort wanted greatness.

The people who are truly great are ones that never sought it but pursued self effacing excellence in their fields and forced society to take notice.

 

[Treasure Hunter]

I desire excellence, not greatness.
Greatness is a desire of establishing socially recognised superiority over others in something.
Excellence is a desire of internally improving and perfecting a set of skills or activities that you do without worrying about your standing in society.

To make a rather simple point of it:
Dumbledore (eventually) settled for excellence while Voldemort wanted greatness.

The people who are truly great are ones that never sought it but pursued self effacing excellence in their fields and forced society to take notice.

The judgment aspect associated with greatness seems to be what really repels people.

The origin story of the hero and the villain are almost indistinguishable. Anyone who is unwilling to sacrifice up their self image as ‘good’ will be denied access to greatness. That’s true.

Excellence feels like a chapter in the story of pursuing greatness. Perfection then condemns excellence, and excellence must also be sacrificed up for the pursuit of perfection.

 

[sayak83]

The judgment aspect associated with greatness seems to be what really repels people.

The origin story of the hero and the villain are almost indistinguishable. Anyone who is unwilling to sacrifice up their self image as ‘good’ will be denied access to greatness. That’s true.

Excellence feels like a chapter in the story of pursuing greatness. Perfection then condemns excellence, and excellence must also be sacrificed up for the pursuit of perfection.

I do not understand. Excellence is what happens when you strive to achieve perfection.
What distinguishes a hero and a villain is that the latter believes it's ok to cause the suffering of other people (sentient beings more generally) in their drive to achieve superiority (in power, usually).

 

[Treasure Hunter]

I do not understand. Excellence is what happens when you strive to achieve perfection.

After that, perfection condemns excellence because excellence is not perfection. There’s a failure point here, a reality check, where if you accept it, you sacrifice up excellence for the pursuit of perfection.

You keep repeating this. If you don’t, then you’re not actually striving for perfection. You’ve settled for excellence.