Strive for excellence, not perfection. ~ H. Jackson Brown Jr.
Excellence is often a perception of self improvement and delivering beyond expectations, whether it’s your own or someone else’s. It is usually a talent or a quality that is unusually good and so surpasses standards.
Excellence allows you to continually learn and improve, while perfection can be stagnant.
So, what are the ingredients for excellence?
Excellence is all about choices. We all have the ability to strive to be great, successful, the best or just mediocre. It’s whether or not you choose to motivate yourself in achieving that goal.
In order to be, retain and have excellence you must have the motivation to invest yourself. Envision and believe you are excellent. Then plan and have a strategy in allowing yourself to strive at your best to obtain it. Value the fact there is always room for improvements.
You also need the perseverance to achieve anything in spite of difficulties and discouragement. Aspire to be passionately successful in all that you do.
You have to be 100% fully committed, dedicated and focused. Sure, there will be times you won’t feel 100% or discouraged, it is a natural human emotion. But, it is the unwillingness to settle for the minimum or second best, that drive, ambition, and strength that will make you rise above the rest.
A little diversity in your excellence helps make you stand out among the rest. Without some difference how else would you be able to excel, let alone have something to compare or compete with?
You also need to be flexible. This allows you to easily change gears in any environment, big or small, hard or easy.
Keep a positive attitude, have some humor but also some humility and respect. When you deal with customer service in a business, you must be mindful of your communication, your actions and attitude. A little bit of anger management can go a long way.
Have compassion and the patience to see other’s perspectives without the distortion from your own opinion. What this will entail is being open minded, as well as humble. It can bring a profound sense of appreciation and respect for you, allowing the opportunity of self development while learning from others.
Excellence does require for accountability, honesty and integrity, while mixing in trustworthiness. It’s not just about being honest and true to yourself, but also to your clients as well as your employer! It is being reliable, accountable in good times and bad, and following a set of workplace ethics. Your employer relies on you to be a worthy employee while demonstrating professionalism, especially in a teamwork related environment.
Finally, reflect on your past and learn from it. Do not be afraid to fail in order to succeed. Having excellence can develop successful learners, effective contributors, and confident responsible citizens.
