Everyone loves a good story with a happy ending. We get excited when someone wins a gold medal, or wins an award, or receives a diploma. It’s so fun to celebrate success and to see others recognized for excellence in whatever they have achieved. During those times of recognition, we may hear others say things like they are so lucky, or they were just born a winner, or everything seems to come easy for them. However, that misses the reality of what it takes to reach your goals. Excellence is a process that requires perseverance and commitment to get there.
First, excellence requires that we push past the idea stage. Most of us have great ideas of what could be, but those ideas are often lost in the rush of life. If we are to achieve excellence, we must commit to taking action to ensure our ideas become a reality. We must turn ideas into goals and establish priorities that will allow us to accomplish them with excellence. Sometimes this means saying no to other things in order to do what is most important.
Commitment means that we are willing to persevere through challenges and obstacles. The more important a goal is, the more challenges there will be. Anyone who strives to produce excellence in their work will soon encounter hard times when they have to dig deep to keep going. It is far easier to say it is too hard and to give up. Giving up will not lead to excellence or success.
To persevere requires building a team around us that will encourage and support our efforts. We need the wisdom and strength of others to keep going when we are struggling to see a way forward. Another tool to aid in perseverance is focusing on things that inspire us to keep going. Inspiration might be music, inspirational quotes, or pictures that have special meaning. These can help us stay focused on what we have set out to do.
Excellence is built of daily discipline, focus, and commitment to doing the hard work today, to receive the reward later. It will not always be fun and will require us to continue to learn and refine our strengths. However, the reward of doing something really well is worthy of such a journey. Let’s strive to make each day something we are proud of and can celebrate!
