Great, Want, and Can't

Conversation from tonight: 

Friend:  Anyone can be great at whatever they want to do, 
Me:  Great? Anything? I don't know about that.
 Friend:  Sure you can. What don’t you think you could be great at? 
Me:  Hmmm…well, painting. I’d really suck at it. I never wanted to paint. 
Friend:  No one can be great at something they don’t want to do either. 

__________

That little conversation segment struck me a little. I actually had to put down my beer and pause for about 3 minutes. There’s something subtle in that statement that I overlooked before. The key word in that statement is the word want. True want and true desire and true passion are motivational in and of itself. If you really want something, you’re going to naturally work hard at it.  

I’ll take my photography as an example. I don’t know how or why I became interested in it; that’s just part of my core being, my fiber, but the interest was there. And because of that, I’ve spent a lot of time over the years just taking pictures, buying and reading how-to books on photography, on cameras, on the technology, and at no point did it ever feel like a hassle. Sure, I’ve taken some pictures that I haven’t turned out well…a lot that haven’t…but it just spurred me on to learn more. But the important thing is that the want was there.  And I feel like over the years I've taken some great pictures.

And on the flip side, if there’s something you don’t want to do, or you’re being forced to do, it makes it that much harder to even do it, never mind be great at it. And there’s a lot in life that falls into this category, whether it’s work, or cooking, or whatever...

...but I think this applies to more than just being great at something, it also applies to being great as a person.  We may want to be great spouses or great friends or great at eating healthy, or whatever each of us may struggle at...why is it a struggle? If we can be great at what we want to do, why can’t we be great, or even just good, at who we want to be? Enter the word can’t. Is it a question of can't?  Or is it really a question of the want? Is it that we struggle at these things because we really don’t want to do them, and not that we can't do them? And WHY is it, in each case, that we don’t want to do whatever it is that we feel we should be doing? Is it something that we, in fact, should be doing?  Are we just following blindly but the want isn’t there? Or are we being lazy because the want is lacking?   

If I think about things this way, it seems that the trick is to find the want in the situation - whatever it is to hang your passion off of, to fuel your desire. For example, I mentioned losing weight - that's something I want to be great at doing. It’s a funny-sounding statement, but maybe that’s the difference I need.  I have a natural desire where I want to be outdoors more.  That’s the want I need to push me to lose weight, to get me past the can't. 

Because it’s not a question of can or can’t; it’s a question of want and desire and passion.  If you want something bad enough, you’re going to do whatever it takes to get to greatness.  And if you do whatever it takes to get to greatness, you need to want that something bad enough.