IT ALL BEGINS HERE:

How can I turn something that I am good at into something that I am truly GREAT at? How far can I possibly take my talents in the next year? The next 5 years? The next 10 years?

How can I tell which passions or talents to pour my efforts into and which to be content at achieving goodness, but not greatness in?

When and how will I know that I am "great?" How is greatness measured? Who determines greatness? Does greatness happen gradually or in sudden leaps to the next level after periods of apparent stagnation? Does greatness cultivate an "IT" factor, or does an "IT" factor cultivate greatness?

I intend to explore and possibly answer, at least for myself, these and many more questions in this blog.

After 41 years of not quite living up to my ultimate potential in the areas in which I show the most promise or talent, I have decided to take charge of my life, to embark on a little life experiment:

Assuming that I reset all mental and emotional limitations placed on me by others as well as by my own lack of confidence, by my own fear of failure, or even more likely by my own fear of success; 

Assuming that I get rid of any and all negative self-talk that ever existed in my mind, including the repercussions of every comment from every person who might have ever suggested that one or more of my life goals was crazy or impractical or that I would never succeed, never make a living doing that;

Assuming that I allow myself to simply start over at my current level of competence in each of my various demonstrated areas of talent and just allow myself to explore and to realize the true potential which I am capable of achieving in each area;

HOW GREAT, HOW FULLY ACTUALIZED OF A HUMAN BEING CAN I ALLOW MYSELF TO BECOME?

For me, my areas of greatest talent or ability that I have demonstrated throughout the past 10-15 years have been:

• My singing voice and related musical abilities, foremost among them my audio engineering and production sensibilities
• My recently discovered ability to learn and juggle varying levels of competence in multiple foreign languages
• My reading speed and related ability to use it to explore and quickly learn about many widely divergent topics
• My writing ability, as demonstrated in previously published feature articles for a major audio engineering and production magazine;  liner notes for a major recording artist's CD release;  various PR materials and press releases within the context of my last job;  and my other blogging efforts, foremost among them my still unedited 300+ page Hong Kong travelogue from February 2013;  etc.
• Teaching and public speaking
• Being a student within a formal academic atmosphere
• Budget worldwide travel and comfort level while immersing myself in local cultures
• Finding things on the street and selling them for crazy amounts of money
• My related ability to purchase items on a small scale for super low prices and flip them at a 10x, 100x or even 200x profit margin
• My personality and comfort level in social situations and when meeting new people from all walks of life
• My ability to endure extreme, extensive and intensive exercise sessions -- whether Krav Maga or other martial arts, Bikram yoga, or bodybuilding (which I was obsessed with from high school until age 30 or so). I am out of shape now, but because I know what I have been capable of achieving in the past, I am going to  not   think in terms of the limitations of my 41 year-old body versus my 20 something year-old younger body,  and instead   believe that I can again get in incredible shape -- at this age and going forward!
• One other thing that I am not allowed to discuss here...wink, wink...

It is my intention to chronicle in this blog my own personal journey over the coming weeks, months and perhaps years as I explore each of these areas and more -- either simultaneously or in turn -- to my fullest capabilities without putting any more limits on myself. 

I am going to allow myself  to be  and  to do  and  to achieve  in each of these areas. With a little bit of luck and a whole lot of effort over time, I hope to have some interesting experiences to write about here.

I plan to start with reading and writing -- because they are so fundamental to all of communication, and because everything else listed above will in some way or another come out of these two fundamental skills. I also plan to focus on singing and speaking foreign languages as my first two SKILL AREAS, solidifying my current ability levels in each before proceeding to the other items on my list.

Of course, no human being in today's world lives in a vacuum. I anticipate that many of the other areas will improve as well -- on their own simply as a function of my being alive -- before I put the same amount of effort into them that I intend to put into my singing and language abilities.

Thanks for reading. And now, let's see what we can make happen...