My best friend’s name is Mike. Since we were kids, I have called him Goon. No good reason for the nickname, really. It was just one of those things where someone, my younger brother in this case, deemed it so, and so it was. Mike was, now and forever, Goon.

I recall clearly a day in the Spring of my senior year in high school. In front of the school was a pond, and Goon and I were sitting beside the pond musing about what the future held for us. As I reflect on that day, I can still feel the breeze, the warm sun on my face, and the hope and possibility laid out before me. Of course, the bulk of this conversation involved the unknowns of the very near future – specifically, which girls would we take to the Prom, and how hot they were. Hey, I haven’t always been this enlightened, and let’s face it, this is the stuff that matters to the seventeen-year-old boy.

There was, though, another element of this conversation that made an indelible imprint on my mind. We were talking about what we might do with our lives: run for office, write a great novel, cure cancer, make millions, and so on. In the midst of this list, Goon introduced the idea of greatness. He said that whatever we choose to do, we need to be great. Time stood still as I considered this notion.

I remember that, at the time, the word greatness meant fame and fortune to me, attention and praise heaped upon me by the outside world. I would be a wildly successful actor, or a mogul of some sort, or a Capra-esque senator with heart. The meaning of greatness has gone through several iterations in my life since that time. Over the years, I’ve wanted to be a rock star, author, radio talk show host and, most recently, a therapist and coach who makes a difference in peoples’ lives.

Whatever my mission was at any given point in my life, this idea of striving for my own greatness has never left me. To this day, I thank Goon for inspiring me with this oh-so-simple, yet so critical, call to action.

There has been a certain burden connected with this drive for greatness, however. In my life, part of my difficulty lies in the fact that I have felt forever malcontented with where I am. I know I need to slow down and recognize the greatness in my life right now. I think this may be true for a lot of us. In fact, only recently did I understand that greatness can take place, and can only take place, in the moment, this moment, right now. That right now is really all we have.

As part of my coaching curriculum, I read a very short, simple, brilliant little book called “The Four Agreements” by Manuel Michael Ruiz. The book is a call for living a life of clarity and integrity based on four very basic tenets. One of the four is, simply, “always do your best.”

Always do your best. Since first reading this book a year ago, I have strived to fulfill this tenet. I soon realized that this requires us to be attentive and self-aware constantly. Paradoxically, though, I have found this vigilance to be more exhilarating and less burdensome than I ever would have thought. I like keeping this phrase in my head. I think doing my best at any and every given moment is my new definition of greatness. Greatness is not derived through external achievements and rewards. It is an internal experience and, if we pay attention, we know it when we feel it. It’s exciting and energy-filled. When I do my best, I feel like I’m in the zone. Most of all, I feel no fear.

Now, I cannot honestly say that I always do my best in each moment of my life. No, I’m a big baby a lot of the time, self-deprecating and self-pitying. But I’m better that I was yesterday, and I’m planning on being even better, even greater, tomorrow.

I feel like I’ve started down the right path. It might be rocky, but I’m fired up about it. I invite you to join me, to find and share your greatness.

Oh, and thanks for sharing yours with me, Goon.