Greatness is Repeated Good

Greatness is easy to determine. Greatness is often visible and backed up by tangible evidence for why someone or something is great. While greatness is oftentimes visible it is not instant. Becoming great takes time and takes hours and hours of work no one sees. Work that is done in the shadows, all in the preparation for compounding results that will pay off down the line. Greatness is not finite. True greatness is not a “one-hit wonder.” It is repeatable and sustained, it lives in the infinite time perspective. Greatness is good that is repeated over the long run that yields compounding skill and ability to produce results.

The idea that it is better to be consistently good than occasionally great preaches the effects of compounding effort. As you continue to be consistent, showing up day after day, you will be better off than the person who only shows up occasionally but performs exceptionally. This framework is very similar to the idea that greatness is just repeated good. Greatness being repeated good is the outcome of what happens when you are consistently good. Over time as you put in daily effort, with decisions made to favor improvement, ability, and skill will compound until greatness is the only result.

No runner became a world champion in a day. It takes years and years of boring miles, of recovery, and of making the right decisions in order to finally toe the starting line and prove greatness. Greatness is the result of the race, but the repeated good is what brought the result.

No violinist became the first chair of an orchestra the first day they began playing. It takes years and years of practice. Practice where no one is watching. Years of committing and repeating the good decisions needed to improve until they finally earn that seat and that title. Greatness is the solo at Carnegie Hall, but the repeated good is what brought the result.

Greatness is not one big decision. Greatness is not a snap-of-the-finger solution that can be found. Expecting greatness to be instant is a recipe to fall off and return to complacency. You cannot fill the cup of greatness up with one waterfall of liquid. It takes the compounding of drops, one by one, until you reach the cup’s brim. Fill the cup up by making decisions and actions over the long run. Greatness being repeated good proves the point that greatness has to be infinite. People who are great do not get overcome with “being great,” they simply repeat good actions consistently and reap the benefits of compounding effort.

Find greatness in your own life by repeating the “good.” Make the “good” decisions on a frequent and repeatable basis in order to uncover the mythical presence that is greatness.