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Greatness is a Choice. Will You Choose to Pursue It?
By Jeremy Likness
On June 3, 1948, a blast rocked the Black Hills of South Dakota. Ten tons of stone were dislodged from the mountain side and tumbled to the earth below. Earlier that day, a man named Korczak had ascended the mountain and single-jacked four holes at 6,740 feet above sea level.
Single-jacking is the practice of placing a drill bit against hard rock, slamming it with a four-pound sledge hammer, then rotating the drill and banging it again until the hole is finished. It is a labor-intensive effort and a single man might only drill six to eight feet over the course of a day.
In the years that followed, more than eight million tons of rock would be blasted away, What was once a silent silhouette in stone began to take on a new shape. But it took more than a decade after Korczak's death--a full 50 years after he single-jacked the first holes--that the face of his muse, the proud Lakota warrior named Crazy Horse would emerge. What Korczak had begun in obscurity by constructing his own 714-step stairway to the summit (one he ascended and descend multiple times in a single day) is now known throughout the world. More than 10,000 hikers converge for the annual hike to the top of the mountain to view the face that alone is taller than Mount Rushmore.
One billion postage stamps with the likeness of Crazy Horse have been issued over the last few decades. It all began with a single hike up the mountain by a man who was humble enough to begin the project by himself. But he had a vision large enough to believe he could transform a mountain into the noble image of a native war hero.
It was a vision of greatness.
How did something so monumental begin with such humble roots? Perhaps the greatest clue left behind is the quotation found on the various knick-knacks in the gift shop next to the mountain. I was moved when I heard the phenomenal story of the Crazy Horse project and bought a souvenir not to remind me of where I had been, but to encourage me to keep forging ahead to where I wanted to be. The beautiful swirl of agate was not what commanded my attention. Rather, it was the words that spoke to my own dreams. It reads:
When the Legends Die The Dreams End When the Dreams End There is No More Greatness
Korczak insisted that it was not important to know when the monument will be finished. What was most important was to continue the dream. And continue the dream he did, through three separate operations to remove six discs in his back. After quadruple bypass surgery, he was back on the mountain supervising his children as they painted the outline of the massive horse's head. Crazy Horse, when completed, will be the worlds largest sculpture, taller than the great pyramids and overshadowing the Washington Monument by eight feet.
Seven of Korczak's ten children continue the dream to this day, along with his wife. Korczak himself rests peacefully in a mausoleum he and his children built at the base of the mountain shortly before his death.
It is said that the journey of a thousand miles begins with the first footstep. Just as the act of carving Crazy Horse's face from living rock took fifty years, the quest to sculpt your own life will not be fulfilled overnight. Why is it so difficult to hold onto the dream of living a healthy, successful life? Have we lost our Legends, and let the Dreams end? You may be amazed to learn that every ordinary person in this world is destined to something extraordinary--if they are willing to stop trying to make it happen and instead search deep within to let it happen.
Are you ready to let success happen?
The Crazy Horse monument is in the Dakota Territory, which was first made famous to other Americans through the journals of Lewis and Clark. Many of us today dread stepping onto the treadmill or out into the cold morning air to run a few miles. The Lewis and Clark expedition crossed the entire country from St. Louis to the west coast and back again. The majority of this was accomplished on foot, dragging boats laden with supplies upstream against the aggressive current of the Missouri River.
One journal entry shared an extraordinary fact--each man consumed nearly twenty pounds of meat every day in order to supply the calories they needed to survive. In stark contrast, when they were struggling through a hard winter in the Rockies, they managed to drag equipment, supplies, guns and tools over treacherous mountain passes while subsisting on nothing more than roots. The entire journey traversed over 8,000 miles and lasted several years, but they set forth knowing only what they wished to accomplish and focused on achieving it one day at a time.
What matters is keeping the dream alive every day. Live the good life. Strive for excellence. Excellence is not perfection--it is the pursuit of greatness. It is perfecting the process of becoming your best. I remind myself of the dream to be my best each and every day because I know that when the dreams end, there is no more greatness.
Do you choose to pursue greatness? If so, never forget your dreams.
Jeremy Likness is a health coach and author of the internationally-selling e-Book, "Lose Fat, Not Faith." A Certified Fitness Trainer and Specialist in Performance Nutrition through the International Sports Science Association, Jeremy himself lost over 65 pounds of fat before founding the company, Natural Physiques, to help others overcome obesity. Visit Jeremy online at http://www.naturalphysiques.com
You may send email to: weightlossexpert@naturalphysiques.com
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