{"id":5320,"date":"2020-11-17T09:25:57","date_gmt":"2020-11-17T14:25:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/?p=5320"},"modified":"2020-11-21T06:39:05","modified_gmt":"2020-11-21T11:39:05","slug":"the-obligation-to-greatness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/2020\/11\/17\/the-obligation-to-greatness\/","title":{"rendered":"The Obligation to Greatness"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Scott T. Allison<\/strong><\/p>\n

Recently, sports journalist Tony Kornheiser, co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interrupt<\/em>ion, discussed Tiger Woods\u2019 scoring a septuple bogey 10 on a par 3 in the final round of the 2020 Masters golf tournament.<\/p>\n

Kornheiser didn\u2019t talk at all about Tiger\u2019s shotmaking gaffes. Instead he focused on what Tiger did after<\/em> carding his disastrous score.<\/p>\n

Tiger birdied 5 of the next 6 holes, a feat that Kornheiser called, \u201cThe Obligation to Greatness\u201d.<\/p>\n

I was struck by this line and immediately Googled it to see its origins and usage. To my surprise, \u201cthe obligation to greatness\u201d appears most often in a religious context, referring to our call to transcend our earthly ambitions. From this perspective, the obligation to greatness is God\u2019s wish for us to become our best selves.<\/p>\n

My feelings about this phrase, \u201cthe obligation to greatness\u201d, are a mix of inspiration and cautionary dread.<\/p>\n

The inspiration is the more obvious emotion. All my work on heroism this past decade has focused on helping and encouraging people to reach their fullest, most heroic potential. Despite life\u2019s challenges, and maybe even because of them, we can all be heroes. We can overcome our struggles, and our suffering, to offer hope to others, help others, and thus make a positive difference in the world.<\/p>\n

The caution I feel about \u201cthe obligation to greatness\u201d is that it may feel like a burden to those who are not yet ready to heed the call. For many of us right now, life is one slap in the \"\"<\/a>face after another. There are economic challenges. There are the hurts of broken relationships. There are health challenges. Achieving \u201cgreatness\u201d may be the last thing on our minds. Just getting through the day seems like challenge enough.<\/p>\n

So where does that leave us? Wrapping our minds around \u201cthe obligation to greatness\u201d may require a creative tension<\/em>. We can trust that the obligation is there, but only when we are ready to fulfill it. Not before.<\/p>\n

During our struggles, we can trust, even to a slight degree, that something bigger and better is waiting for us. Trusting the process is very hard when there are bills to pay, hurts to mend, and tears to shed. This is why so many good mentors encourage us to hold on<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So today, I am telling you:\u00a0 Hold on<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 I am here for you. I am telling you that even by holding onto life by a thread, you are fulfilling your obligation to greatness, whether you are aware of it or not.<\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Scott T. Allison Recently, sports journalist Tony Kornheiser, co-host of ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption, discussed Tiger Woods\u2019 scoring a septuple bogey 10 on a par 3 in the final round of the 2020 Masters golf tournament. Kornheiser didn\u2019t talk at all about Tiger\u2019s shotmaking gaffes. Instead he focused on what Tiger did after carding … Continue reading The Obligation to Greatness<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1182,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5444],"tags":[162009,162008],"class_list":["post-5320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-commentary-and-analysis","tag-creative-tension","tag-obligation-to-greatness"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/phawtM-1nO","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1182"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5320"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5320\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5338,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5320\/revisions\/5338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.richmond.edu\/heroes\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}