within each and every one of us is an impulse to achieve greatness

within each and every one of us is an
impulse to achieve greatness. To reach our highest potential but few among us
achieve anything of great worth. Why is this? If we all want to be rich
successful influential or famous, how, come so few of us do? While there are
various reasons for this, the primary cause is we fear our own greatness.
That's right, we fear our own maximum potential far more than we fear to be
insignificant. 20th-century psychologist Abraham Maslow said we are generally
afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments. We
enjoy an even thrill to the godlike possibilities we see in ourselves and
yet we simultaneously shiver with weakness and fear before these very same
possibilities. Maslow called this fear of greatness the Jonah complex named after
the biblical character Jonah who attempted to flee from the fate bestowed
upon him by God. But why do we shy away from greatness? The reason is that human
beings have a primal fear of being isolated. We don't fear greatness we fear
being alone. When we strive for greatness we become separated from the herd. In
becoming great an individual actualize as their potential and develops skills
and abilities that set them apart from everyone else. Standing out can stimulate
feelings of loneliness. The more unique you become, the more you lose the
protection of the crowd. This fear causes us to establish a greater connection
with society by rejecting much of what makes us unique. We shy away from
greatness so we can fit in and be like everyone else.
conversely, humans have another deeply ingrained fear that drives us which is
the fear of conformity there is a type of psychological death that occurs when
we fully conform to societal norms.,The more we can form, the more we lose our
individuality and sense of self.

Abraham Maslow made a habit of asking his students who among them would write
a great novel or become a great leader? he discovered that generally everyone
starts giggling blushing and squirming until I asked: "if not you then who else?"
which of course is the truth if you deliberately plan to be less than you
are capable of being then I warn you that you'll be deeply unhappy for the
rest of your life you'll be evading your own capacities your own abilities. Maslow
thought the awkwardness displayed by his students was the inability to fathom the
godlike possibilities within for too long without succumbing to the fear that
such arrogance could lead to one of the delusions of grandeur people tend
to gravitate to the opposite extreme and imagine themselves as insignificant
incapable of achieving anything of the profound impact so is there a healthy
balance can you achieve greatness without isolating yourself somewhere
between humility and arrogance is a healthy median on the one end you have
arrogant people who believe they are better than others they have an
exaggerated view of their importance and an inflated ego but it takes a certain
amount of arrogance to pull yourself out of the crowd to reach for something
great the belief that you are capable of achieving something extraordinary but
arrogance without humility will lead to delusion and loneliness humility on the
another hand is the belief that you are not important not special not unique or
in other words, being humble humility alone will lead to nothing ever getting
accomplished if you were too humble.