In any endeavor, in any field, there is nothing as attractive as excellence. We all would prefer to drive an excellent car. We all want to live in an excellent country. We want to be associated with it, we want friends who have achieved excellence. We all want to work for an excellent company with excellent products.
Why then do we so often settle for mediocrity? Here’s another truth: Excellence takes hard work. It does not come easy, you must break a sweat. You must often sacrifice to achieve it. This is a well known fact.
Some people have greatness thrust upon them. Few have excellence thrust upon them…. They achieve it. They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally and they don’t stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves. All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose. – John W. Gardner, 1912 – 2002
Before we can set out to achieve it, first we have to believe ourselves worthy of excellence. Then we can become hungry for it. We must train ourselves to strive for it.
Pick something and do it well. Not to the best of your ability: that is too limiting. Do it better than that. To achieve excellence we always must grow. If the best you can do is less than excellent push yourself. Look outside yourself, get help from an expert. Once you have pride in what you have accomplished, you will want more. It’s almost like a drug, one little hit and you’re hooked.
Excellence requires focus. It is impossible to achieve it in everything simultaneously. This is the difference between excellence and perfection. Excellence is selective perfection: perfection where it matters most, good enough everywhere else. It takes wisdom to know the difference, or perfection can become the enemy of excellence.
It’s addictive. Having achieved excellence it is much harder to settle for mediocrity.
(This post was originally published HERE)