History teaches us that unless we’re challenged, human nature has a tendency to settle for good. Good jobs, good relationships, good health, and simply a good time. However, as Jim Collins stated quite succinctly in his New York Times best-selling book, Good to Great, “Good is the enemy of great.” And on a certain level, just below the surface of the experience of good, exists a churning feeling of being unfulfilled and a mysterious longing for something more. Yes it’s nice to feel good, however there’s a part of you that knows that Greatness exists in the very same moment.

Why is it then that so many people settle for jobs, partners, health, and the status quo of life’s circumstances? Some people use excuses of not having enough money, family support, or social privileges to explain or justify living in the mediocrity of good. Yes, there can be blessings of being born into money that holds the potential to have a wider range of opportunities, however as the Beatles sang in the year 1964 and still rings true today: Money can’t buy me love. Fulfillment and owning one’s power is an inside job and is the tethering vibration between good and great.

Within each and every one of us exists the same opportunity and potential for self-realization. Helen Keller is an extraordinary example of this. Helen Keller was the first deaf and blind person to earn a Bachelor of Arts degree. Anne Sullivan – Helen Keller’s teacher – helped Helen bridge the gap and sprout her seed of greatness. Helen Keller is quoted saying, “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing. Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature.” Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than exposure. The transformation from good to greatness is a journey whose power is discovered along the way.

In my experience the perspective you have about your present, past, or future holds the key to awakening your inner greatness. As Wayne Dyer so eloquently says, “When you change the way you view things, the things that you view change.”

So what is it that keeps people viewing through the same lens of good again and again rather than upgrading and changing their perceptual prescription to greatness? The answer resides within the subconscious mind.

In 1999 – all within a month’s time – my grandmother died in my arms, my fiancé chose to end our relationship and get engaged right after ending ours, my business almost went completely bankrupt, and I ruptured my left Achilles tendon twice. Little did I know that at the moment of complete darkness my light was just beginning to shine. These experiences were priming my spiritual engine to upgrade from living a good life to living a great life.

Fast forward two years to 2001 and I’m at the tipping point between faith and fear. I could settle and continue to live in fear – reacting to reactions – or awaken with faith to possibilities that only my imagination could conjure up. The shift for me occurred in an instant like a scene from Star Trek. One moment I’m pacing the floor in my home with fearful hamster wheel—like thoughts looping through my mind and in the next second I’m beamed up into a space of clarity and Divine vision. In a single moment – actually a swing from good to great – I was now able to perceive the blueprint or roadmap to helping others awaken to their own power.

Here’s a powerful exercise to begin your journey of transforming your perception of good into great!

1. Connect to something or someone that causes you to feel stress. Regardless of what or who it is, simply observe where your mind and heart takes you. Acknowledge the stress by appreciating the emotion that it brings up in you. Write this emotion down on a piece of paper.
2. Rating this emotion on a scale of 0 to 10 with 0 being nothing at all and 10 being off the charts will help you to appreciate the level of stress you’re currently under. Now ask yourself this question pertaining to the stressful circumstance. Given the opportunity would you ever choose to create your life, a day, or a single moment feeling or attracting this emotional stress? (The answer to this question is universally and discernibly no!)
3. Knowing you would never consciously choose this stress helps you to appreciate that the source of its origination is reactive in nature. Only the conscious mind chooses and if you wouldn’t choose the stress then its source is the subconscious mind.
4. Now we’re going to guide and influence your subconscious mind into the land of greatness by focusing on what you do choose. From a place of love and the desire of your heart, imagine that you have a menu of infinite possibilities to choose from. What do you choose to feel? Remember, we’re going for greatness! Write this feeling down on a piece of paper.
5. Now put the words I Am _______ in front of this feeling and say it out loud 3 times. Put a smile on your face for extra credit and feel it send ripples all through your body as you declare it to the world!
6. I encourage you to make a daily commitment to yourself by looking in the mirror deeply into your beautiful eyes while declaring your I Am ______ statement. Perform this exercise 10 times in the morning and 10 times in the evening. Writing your statement on a sticky note and placing it on the mirror will help you to remember this important act of self-love each and every day. Go for it NOW, your destiny of greatness awaits you!

Dr. Darren R. Weissman is the developer of The LifeLine Technique, an advanced holistic system that discovers, releases, and interprets the root cause of physical symptoms and stress—emotions trapped within the subconscious mind. His mission is world peace through inner peace. Darren is an internationally renowned lecturer and has helped thousands of people awaken to their infinite potential and The Power of Infinite Love & Gratitude. 

Darren Weissman is featured in the groundbreaking documentary Beyond Belief – produced by Jim Holzknecht and Becky Hays.