Your greatness is unique and reveals itself at the right time. You might as well be excellent until you’re great. But first, understand what this means.

What your greatness is will be unique, so it’s a waste of time and energy to compare yourself to others. What your greatness is may appear small; but to those it matters to (especially you), it’s anything but small or insignificant. Are the entertaining books of an author such as Janet Evanovich less great than the work of a heart surgeon? No; just different. I can tell you that the many episodes of toes-up laughter I experienced when I read her novel, “Plum Lovin’,” did my heart, mind, and mood tremendous benefit. I’m grateful she discovered and lives her greatness in a way that lets me benefit from it.

Do you have a green thumb that produces fruits, vegetables, or flowers that nurture others in a meaningful way for them? Do you have a gift for encouraging young children’s minds and self-esteem? Are you a frustrated Thomas Edison type? A great quote of his is, “I had to succeed because I finally ran out of things that wouldn’t work.” That’s passionate commitment! One thing is certain: Whatever greatness is, it always leads by example. There are numerous levels of examples, including the simple art of how to enjoy life (which so many struggle with) even if you never perform a heart transplant or write a best-seller.

Maybe you haven’t identified what you’re great at yet. It’s the thing you love most to do or feel most alive or fulfilled when you do it, no matter what form it takes in the world. And as with anything, you start at the beginning and expand, enhance, develop, and grow into your greatness. You don’t start at the end result.

Greatness, though, is not only about what you do, it’s about who you are at your core of being. Do you seek to learn about and understand yourself and others? Do you deliberately nurture self-love and, therefore, love of others? Are you kind, compassionate, empathetic, friendly, of service in ways appropriate for you? Are you self-assessing and self-adjusting?

Until you get clear or in alignment with your inner and outer greatness, be excellent; and please, avoid perfectionism (I have never met an easy-going perfectionist). Release the definition of excellence used by others and aim for your personal best. Your personal best will be different from day to day. But you can ask yourself, “What would my best look like right now?” and “Do I feel I did the best I could at the time?”

Greatness appears early for some and later in life for others. There are individuals who amass experiences or overcome challenges until the day arrives when they are clear about what their greatness is: that which they have head-and-heart alignment about and a passionate commitment for.

If you feel you’re not living your greatness at this time, ask: Am I building my skills so that I’ll be ready when it’s time? Do I know what I really want to do but hesitate because of what others might think? Am I waiting until it’s too painful not to do it?

Until you know what your greatness is, or choose it, explore what excellence means for you. You won’t be bored.

Joyce Shafer, LEC (jls1422@yahoo.com) is an author and creator of the Reinvent Yourself life and business coaching program for new and struggling Law of Attraction users. Make Shift Happen! Design your life. Visit http://www.freewebs.com/coach4lifebalance (free empowerment tools and newsletter). Her books and e-books are available at www.lulu.com and discounted at her Web Store.

Joyce Shafer, L.E.C. and Author may be contacted at http://www.freewebs.com/coach4lifebalance or jls1422@yahoo.com

Learn more about Marnie Pehrson at Monetize Your Gifts.

You look up. There surrounding you are hundreds of others standing on their own platforms, forming a circle above the opening into space. Some look down with excited smiles, others with creases of worry upon their brows.

Each person, just like you, has a guide dressed in a flowing white robe standing beside them. You watch your best friend at the platform to your left. Her guide whispers something into her ear. She nods her head, offers you one last wave, and jumps. Down she floats, her arms spread wide, her white robe billowing as she descends toward the earth and disappears into the clouds.

You gulp, knowing your turn is coming soon. You look to your guide. “It’s almost time,” he says. His blue eyes stare deeply into yours. “Remember, remember what you decided upon. What is your mission?”

The familiar refrain runs through your mind as it has millions of times before. You know it well — what you are being sent forth to do. While everyone who descends knows they are going to obtain their body, learn to live by faith, and follow the light home, each individual also has a unique mission, a unique message they hope will guide their lives.

Some will discover it and follow it with intention. Others will stumble upon it, living it without conscious awareness. Still others will become lost in the things of the world and completely forget their message and their promise to magnify it. This is the danger of the journey.

You concentrate, repeating your one-sentence mission twice to your guide. He nods his head vigorously, “Good, good, you’ll do fine. Just remember . . . ” He repeats your mission back to you.

“But how will I remember it when I’m going to forget everything?” you ask for what feels like the hundredth time.

“There will be reminders, indicators, signs. Look for them. But most of all,” he taps you where your heart will one day beat. “Most of all, if it’s in here deep enough, it will guide you like a homing signal. Follow it. Live it. Look for the light and it will guide you home.”

Your head bobs up and down and you put your hand over your chest, repeating your mission one more time for good measure. You understand now why your mentors insisted you keep it short . . . simple . . . powerful.

“It’s time,” he says.

You close your eyes and take your very first leap of faith . . .

Did you know that you were born with a powerful message that you are uniquely designed to deliver? Like a gorgeous garden around a central theme, you’re prepackaged with talent seeds to help you convey your message. Marnie Pehrson (a wife and mother of 6) has been helping people like you start online businesses and earn money from their talents since 1994. She is the author of 26 books and ebooks on such topics as How to Get More Done in a Day than Most People Accomplish in a Week and You’re Here for a Reason: Discover and Live your Purpose. . Marnie loves working with entrepreneurs and helping them monetize their gifts so they can deliver their messages in ways that impact the world for good. Consider her a cultivator of soil — a waterer of crops — who is here to help you reap an abundant harvest! Get the first 50 pages of You’re Here for a Reason for FREE.

If you haven’t seen it yet, it’s a must see!

I looked at the Internet Movie Database, www.imdb.com and learned that the movie was released in 1993. I remember seeing it as a newly-released movie, and later bought the DVD. Critics might not give the movie a high rating, but I agree with one of the comments made on this site about the movie. “Those of you with fathers, those of you who have lost fathers, and those of you who are fathers should see this movie.” That pretty much includes all of us, doesn’t it?

I lost my father when I was a young mother myself. I was mad at him for 20 years after that because he left me. One of the lines in this movie is, “This whole dying thing wasn’t my idea.” It was a message I needed to hear, and of course, I knew that if my father could have had a say in the matter, he would definitely not have died.

The reason I mention this movie is that I love the way it stresses the importance of keeping records! I’ve been a pretty faithful journal keeper all of my adult life. I encouraged my grandfather to write about his life, and I love reading through it, but I sure wish I would have done a video recording of him TELLING me about his life.

In 1991, which was about five years after my grandfather died, my mother came to visit. At the time, she was 71 years old, and in pretty good health. We had just bought a video recorder because every new grandparent has to have one! I had Mom sit on the couch and I set the recorder up on a tripod. I stood behind it and asked her questions. One of the things I do regret is that I didn’t ever come forward and sit beside her, or even give her a hug. There is no record of ME – I am just the voice behind the video.

Here is how we got started:

Tell me about your grandparents.

What were their names?

What do you remember about each one of them?

What about your parents?

What were there names?

What do you remember about them?

Tell me about your siblings. Start with the oldest.

Tell me his name, birth date, what was he like as a child?

What about your oldest sister?

You get the idea. I don’t remember having a script, and watching and listening to it today, you can tell it’s done by an amateur, but the thing that impresses me the most is that I was actually listening to what she had to say, and trying to get her to expand on the topic.

For instance, when she told me she went to Hornbeak High School, I asked her what she remembered about the school. How many were in your graduating class? Who was your best friend?

You can’t script something when you’re really wanting to find out who they are! You just have to listen.

As incredible as it seems to me now, we kept the camera rolling for almost two full hours! I couldn’t get my mother to write one word about her life, but she loved talking about it.

When we finally stopped, I put the tape away and told Mom I wouldn’t show it to anyone until after she passed away. She talked about some sensitive issues that I wasn’t sure she wanted shared with everyone at that point. It was nothing as sensational as the discovery the kids made in “The Bridges of Madison County,” but just some details that I wanted to make sure were recorded correctly.

Seventeen years later, we can now watch my mother’s life story, just the way she wanted to tell it.

When we were told that Mom didn’t have long to live, I took the tape to the video copy store and had three DVDs made. One for me, and one for my sister. The third one was for my aunt. I brought it home and cried as I watched the mother who was animated and very much alive in 1991. There she was on my television screen: talking, making familiar hand gestures, throwing her head back to laugh, with twinkling eyes that were full of life. This was not the mother I had known in recent years; the mother who had merely existed in a worn out body. The mother who was often confused as a result of prescribed medications.

The day Mom passed away, I showed the video to my sister. She couldn’t watch more than about five minutes of it because the emotion of losing our mother was just too much. But she did say something that will forever live in my memory. “Joyce, I don’t know what inspired you to do this, but if I had nothing else of Mom’s, this would be enough. This is priceless.”

Priceless. It truly is priceless.

The wonderful thing about capturing someone on film is that in some ways, they live on forever.

Grandchildren who only knew their great-grandmother as someone who was dependent on us for her care, can learn to know her as was one of the most INdependent people who ever lived. They can come to know her as we all did, when she was the traveling grandma who came to visit quite often. The grandma who took us out for pizza on Saturdays. The grandma who was plump and very snuggable. The grandma my children loved and enjoyed. The grandma who tried to recapture so much of her youth through her grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

If you’ve got a video camera on the shelf, get it out! Don’t wait for the next family reunion to record those stories. You may not get Uncle Dave to sit still for two hours, but fifteen minutes is better than nothing.

You don’t need to feel like you’re imposing by asking someone to let you tape their story. Wouldn’t you love to think that someone finds you interesting enough to want to capture your life on camera?

Make every moment count!

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

A good friend of mine, Ed, recently lost his father. When he found out my mother was dying, he told me to start gathering pictures so I could put a slide show together. That was the best piece of advice anyone gave me! He told me I could download the program for f*ree here:

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/photostory/default.mspx

I got to work immediately because I didn’t know how much time I had. Fortunately, I ended up with about four weeks to accomplish the task. Here’s what I did:

*Downloaded the software. I found it very simple to use. Of course, I’m one of those people who only reads directions if I can’t figure it out on my own. This was my kind of software!

* Started looking through my own digital files for pictures I had taken over the past 4-5 years. This was pretty simple. It was just a matter of importing the pictures into the program.

* Asked other family members to email me with any photos they had. My cousin and a niece were very helpful in coming up with pictures I had never seen before.

* Went through photo albums and scanned photos. This was the part that took the most time because once the photo was scanned, I had to crop. I was sure glad I got started early on this part!

Before it was over, I had about 15 minutes of video which included about 200 photographs. Photos included individual pictures of Mom, along with pictures of her with her children, grandchildren, and siblings.

As I worked on this project, I can’t tell you how many times I thought about how my mother would have LOVED looking at a slide show like this of her life! Why in the world hadn’t I prepared something like this BEFORE the end of her life?

Now, here I was, seeing pictures of my mother that were new to me. I wanted answers about some of them. Where was it taken? What do you remember about that day? How old were you?

As I imported the pictures, I included whatever information I could come up with on my own. Names of people in the photo, approximate year, clever comments about various poses. She was a real beauty of movie star quality!

Since my mother was a free spirit from Tennessee, I wanted to use Elvis’s rendition of “I Did It My Way,” to go along with the 200 pictures I had gathered. For a fee of $19.95, I was able to do that, but by the time I figured all that out, it was too late. Paying this extra money also gave me the ability to burn a copy of the slideshow as a DVD, but once I got back home from the funeral, it didn’t seem to matter.

I’ll have to say that the slideshow was one of the “hits” for the folks back home in Tennessee. We all enjoyed watching my mother’s life flash before us because it brought back memories of much happier times in our lives.

I know there are many different programs out there to help you tell the story of your family. It doesn’t matter which program you use, or how much money you want to spend.

After we got home, I discovered another way of presenting these photos that would allow me to include the music I wanted at no extra cost. www.onetruemedia.com is a very simple program to use, and since it’s online, you don’t have to download anything. As long as you have internet access to show it, it’s great! One of the great features to this one is that you can send a link to family and friends and they can watch it anytime they want.

I should put a warning label on this project idea, though! Once you get started, it’s addictive. Realize that you’re probably not going to gather every picture ever taken of that person, and you don’t need five different poses of the same thing (unless they’re all just adorable in their own way!). Just start with what you’ve got, and go from there. You can always add or delete photos whenever you want.

Just imagine the possibilities.

*What a great way to review and share your vacation photos!

*What a great gift for someone! Start now and give them the DVD for birthdays and Christmas.

* What a great way to share with family that’s not close by.

I’m thinking about making individual slide shows for everyone in my family!

Wouldn’t the kids or grandkids love watching a video of themselves?

Gosh, who wouldn’t love looking at pictures of themselves and their loved ones!

Share the memories.

Joyce Moseley Pierce is a contributing author to the Chicken Soup for the Soul series.  She’s the creator of All They’ll Need to Know and owner of Emerson Publications.  She’s the Family Preparedness Expert for Ideamarketers.com as well as Women Loving Life Worldwide.  Visit www.emersonpublications.com or www.preparedineveryway.com to learn more.  Follow Joyce on Twitter @piercejam.

She stepped into the meeting and noticed a lady who travels a lot and is rarely at church. She sat down beside her, gave her a big hug, and told her how great it was to see her. They enjoyed sitting next to each other throughout the meeting. When the meeting ended, the woman turned to my friend and said, “You know, I travel a lot and it’s hard when I’m home to go to church. I don’t know most of the people, and they don’t know me. So it’s difficult. This morning I didn’t want to come, but I thought: Jane will be there, and I know that if no one else notices or cares, Jane loves me and that’s enough.”

Isn’t it wonderful how these two women were brought into each other’s lives to help each other feel uplifted, valued and loved? But there’s more to this encounter that I’d like to explore.  I was struggling through my own issues when my friend told me this story. I was feeling exhausted, worn-down, and as if no matter what I did it was never going to be enough. I have this great desire to put good out in the world, to reach more people with positive messages about God and the joy a Christ-centered life can bring. Yet, no matter how hard I tried, or how many long hours I worked, it seemed it was never enough. Even successes felt anti-climactic because it still wasn’t enough in my mind.

I was talking to my friend about this, and she told me this story and said, “I know it relates to what you’re dealing with, you’ll just have to figure out how.”

For the next twenty-four hours, I pondered this story, and I came to realize something significant. My wonderful Christ-like friend didn’t have to do anything extraordinary to impact this woman’s life. She didn’t go to church with the mindset of “I’m going to church, and I’m going to make it a positive place where everyone feels welcomed and loved.” In fact, she had to drag herself out the door and make herself go. “Obedience” is the word she used.

When she got there, she was simply herself. She saw this woman that she knew and loved, and her natural personality and gift for making people feel loved spilled out of her and enriched both their lives. Do you see the simplicity of this formula?

1.    Be obedient.
2.    Show up and be yourself.

Or as Jesus said it:

1.    Seek ye first the kingdom of God,
2.    And all these things shall be added unto you.

These words of Christ also came to mind, “Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these.” I went back and read the first half of Luke 12 in a new way. Jesus is talking to his disciples. Note that — he’s talking to his disciples and not the general public. These people are His followers. They know Him, and they love Him. They want to help Him build the kingdom.

I think that’s significant. These aren’t ordinary Joes and Janes. And neither is my friend. She’s a wonderful Christian woman who loves people and loves the Savior. Not everyone can “show up and be themselves” and make the world a better place! Some people have quite the opposite effect on the world around them. So I’m going to add one more underpinning piece to this formula:

1.    Be a disciple of Christ.
2.    Be obedient.
3.    Show up and be yourself.

Then Jesus tells his disciples not to worry about food or raiment but consider the ravens that don’t sow or reap, and the lilies that don’t toil or spin, and the grass that just sits there and is a beautiful green. Aren’t you better than these? Aren’t you of more worth than birds, flowers or grass? So stop worrying over these things.

“For all these things do the nations of the world seek after: and your Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But rather seek ye the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:30-32).

Typically when we read these verses we think of physical things we need, and we wonder how in the world we are supposed to take care of our families if we don’t work. Should we just sit back and expect God to provide for us? I really don’t think that’s what Jesus is saying. I think he’s talking about worry. When we’re putting God first and building His kingdom, why do we need to worry that He’s going to allow us to land in the streets homeless and naked? And is it really all that important to have the best car or the biggest house if we put the kingdom of God first?

I’ve looked at this passage so many times as I’ve thought about my physical needs, and it’s given me great comfort. But I’m looking at it with fresh eyes today.  I’m looking at it from the perspective of someone who wants to be a disciple of Christ — someone whose greatest desire is to help build the kingdom of God. This disciple’s not worrying over food and raiment at the moment and isn’t worried about keeping up with the Jones’. This disciple wants to be an instrument in God’s hands to bless lives.

What is this disciples’ concern now? She wants to reach more people with God’s message. She wants to make an impact. She wants to shed His light to all the world. Why? Because she loves God, and she loves His children. This person begins to realize that the job is immense. People are overwhelmed with just keeping their heads above water and don’t always make time for what they really need. She starts to get the sense that Christ is coming soon, and we’re running out of time. She starts to think, “I’m not doing enough. I’m not making a big enough difference.” She starts burning the candle at both ends and feeling guilty over not doing enough.

Christ’s words ring just as true for this person. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you. Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” God wants to help you with your purpose! He wants to help you build the kingdom. You’re not alone. You don’t have to feel guilty. He’s not grading you. He’s not telling you that you’re not doing enough. He’s saying, “Consider the lilies of the field, and the grass, and the birds. They don’t toil and spin to be who they are or to bring beauty to the world. They just are who they are, and God uses them perfectly, flawlessly.”

Do you see what I’m saying? What we, as disciples of Christ, need to focus on is our relationship with Him and being obedient to His commands. As we do that, we’ll be in the right places. We’ll show up. We’ll be ourselves, and we’ll change the world. No toil. No spin. No guilt required.

Get the first 50 pages of Marnie’s 52-week workbook, “You’re Here for a Reason: Discover & Live Your Purpose“