After completing an online webinar with one of my favorite author's Marianne Williamson, I received some profound guidance and advice that she was able to share with those of us in attendance.  Among my favorite was a statement that she made about how you define great people.  She stated, "Great people are not the one's that never fall down.  Great people do what it takes to get back up".  Think about the many times that you have fallen both literally or figuratively and the feelings associated with those periods which could have been embarrassing, shameful or even periods of defeat.  After she provided this statement, the first thing that came to my mind was an actual fall that I had when I was young in my preteen years.  I was running an errand for my Grandmother on my bicycle and I had a bag on my handle bars that was swinging back in forth from what I had bought at the store for her.  As I got closer to her house the bag swung right in to the bicycle spokes and in a split second, it prevented the wheel from turning and I immediately flew over the handle bars.  The moments shortly thereafter passed as if in slow motion as I slid on the asphalt on the street.  A neighbor who saw this came running over to me and as I made myself get up and limp away telling the neighbor that I was just fine.  I do remember that I could barely stand, as the pain that I was feeling from the scrapes and bruises began to set in.  I told myself in that moment not to cry and as I walked very slowly away and I felt extremely embarrassed over what had just occurred.  It would have never occurred to me as I think back at that explosive moment that the circumstance would enable me the opportunity to show the characteristics of being a great person, because I was able to get back up.  We are all riddled with various such examples I am sure, that poignantly can illustrate times in our lives where we may have taken a spill.  Perhaps it was an emotional or spiritual spill and we may have felt the lingering effects afterwards.  Some of those periods could have stayed with us for a far longer than we would have liked them to.  I  know that everyone has had at least one day in their life when they felt that perhaps they were not strong enough to get up.  Amazingly, most us did get up and are still standing until this day.  Give yourself some credit for what you were able to withstand and think about how much stronger you have become as a result of those falls.  In the morning or at night, look in the mirror and take a deep look at yourself as you embrace the experience that has come with your ability to stand there today.  While we all embody greatness, the amount that you give yourselves credit for will have to do with how much you believe this to be true in your own life.