As children, we want to grow up to be ballerinas, cowboys, firefighters, rockstars, doctors, actors, models, NFL stars, astronauts, British pop sensations (Yes, I am referring to One Direction — or the Beatles, if you prefer). When we get a little older, we start to recognize and appreciate the people and things that make this world a marvelous place. From here, we can start to think about the words ‘destiny’ and ‘greatness’. From here, we think of things like: finding our prince charming and being swept off our feet in love, curing cancer, being awarded the nobel prize, winning a gold medal at the Olympics, landing on the moon, etcetera. From here, we decide where we stand — are we going to be destined for great things or are we going to wait for destiny to come to us?

The answer for 99.9% of the great people in the world is — I choose to be destined for greatness. To be destined is to be predetermined to be or do something. These great people make great things happen for them through hard work and dedication. For example, you don’t just become the most decorated olympian in history through destiny alone. Michael Phelps won 22 Olympic medals by choice — He chose to train for hours on end, day in and day out and compete in the games in 2008 and again in 2012. With this, he is obviously a very talented swimmer, but without choosing to work hard and train to the best of his ability he would have never gone down in history.

Further back in history, specifically in regard to the sciences, there were many people who were ridiculed and not even recognized for their hard work and dedication until after they had passed. People like Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Gregor Mendel, and Rosalind Franklin — all people who changed the way the world thinks, but not appreciated until it was too late. Charles Darwin, more specifically, theorized that all species of life descended over time from common ancestors. We call it evolution. He proposed this in 1859 and was rejected by the scientific community until the 1870s when people started to accept his theory, but preferred other theories of how the world emerged. It was not until the 1930s (50 years after Darwin’s death), that his discoveries were appreciated and used in explaining the diversity of life. These people are surrounded by rejection and ridicule until the day they died and still persevered.

I have a sneaking suspicion that Darwin did not believe in destiny, or that he was unable to control the fact that his name would be published in every single biology textbook that the world has to offer. I think Darwin believed he needed to be put down in every single biology textbook so that others could learn and hypothesize further, or even come to conclusions about where they or other beings came from.

From here, not everyone is destined for greatness. Not everyone is capable of waking up in the morning and continuously working toward a goal they may have already failed once, twice, a thousand times, or waking up and training hard even though they are sore or tired or not where they want to be despite their hard work. Coaches, parents, friends — everyone knows someone who wasted their ability. That person who thrived in high school or middle school, but quit once it got too hard. That person who was envied by those who had average levels of talent, but extraordinary levels of drive and motivation. That person chose their destiny, making themselves incapable of greatness. But the person who has an average level of talent, and a remarkable level of drive and motivation? They will be amazing due to heart alone.

From here, I’d like to say that greatness is relative. Greatness is relative because not everyone wants to win a nobel prize for solving a protein structure or win an olympic medal or land on the moon. People who aspire for healthy children, food on the table, shoes on the feet are equally as admirable.

So are you capable of being destined for greatness?