I've spent enough time around business conferences, success seminars, and motivational speakers to notice a recurring theme.

"You can be great."

Sometimes it's presented as a challenge. Sometimes as a promise. Occasionally as a certainty. Closely related is the idea that everyone is great at something, and all you need to do is discover your hidden superpower.

I understand the appeal. These messages are intended to inspire hope, confidence, and ambition. In many cases they probably do. But I've never been entirely comfortable with them because life seems to provide evidence to the contrary.

When I look around, I see people who are genuinely extraordinary. I watch brilliant entrepreneurs create companies from nothing. Inventors develop technologies that transform entire industries. Musicians, athletes, writers, scientists, and leaders perform at levels that leave the rest of us shaking our heads in admiration. Every time I think humanity has reached some practical limit of creativity or ingenuity, somebody comes along and proves otherwise.

My reaction is usually some variation of, "Well, I couldn't have done that."

And that's okay.

At some point in life, most of us come face-to-face with our limitations. We discover there are things we will never be exceptional at. I spent enough time on roller skates to learn that I was never destined for pretty much anything where the surface is moving beneath my feet. There are musicians who can hear things I cannot hear, mathematicians who can see patterns I cannot see, and entrepreneurs who can build businesses at a scale I can barely comprehend.

For a while, that realization can be unsettling. If our value depends on becoming extraordinary, what happens when we discover we're mostly ordinary?

I think that's where we often get off track.

The assumption hidden beneath so much of our thinking is that achievement determines worth. If I accomplish enough, build enough, earn enough, create enough, or influence enough people, then my life matters. But I've become increasingly convinced that we've mixed up two very different ideas.

Greatness and goodness are not the same thing.

Greatness is often a matter of talent, opportunity, timing, genetics, circumstances, and a hundred other factors beyond our control. Some people truly are gifted in unusual ways. Some are placed in extraordinary moments. Some develop abilities that set them apart from nearly everyone around them.

Goodness is different. Goodness is a choice.

Honesty is a choice. Kindness is a choice. Generosity is a choice. Courage is a choice. Faithfulness is a choice. Mercy is a choice. Humility is a choice.

You don't have to possess extraordinary talent to practice any of those things.

My faith tells me something else that has become increasingly important to me over the years. Our value does not originate in our accomplishments. It originates in the fact that we are loved by God. Not because we've earned it or even could earn it. Not because we've accomplished something remarkable. Not because we've proven ourselves worthy. Simply because that's who God is.

Don't ask me to fully explain that. I can't. I only know that if God loves us, there must be a reason. God does not create people carelessly, and He does not waste His affection on accidents.

That realization takes a surprising amount of pressure off.

Maybe you have the seeds of greatness. Maybe you don't. History will sort that out. Most of us will never know how much latent potential we carried around inside us. We will simply live our lives, do our work, love our families, make our mistakes, and keep moving forward.

But every one of us has the opportunity to choose goodness.

We can become the kind of people through whom something larger than ourselves works. We can become instruments of encouragement, compassion, wisdom, service, and grace. We can leave people a little better than we found them.

That opportunity is available to every person reading these words.

And if you manage to do that consistently, well, that sounds pretty great to me.

Over 4 million people have had the same lightbulb moment.

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