“Excellence starts with the expectation we set for ourselves . . .”
“. . . our best today is different than our best from yesterday – our best for tomorrow will be better still.” (quotes by Matt Hann)
There was a time I tried to be a “perfectionist”. I would work on something over and over again trying to get my project or task to 100% perfection only to see later that a small glitch was somewhere to be found. I was glad when I realized perfection is a fleeting goal and that it just does not exist in the sense we think. What does exist, however, is “excellence”. Let me say the “spirit of excellence”. The desire to do something, giving it all of your might, and doing it to the best of your ability.
I learned early on from my mother that whatever my hands found to do, that I was to do it with all my might, and with all my soul. I was to put heart into it. My mother taught me this lesson while doing house chores. I can vividly remember her making such statements while I dusted or when I half-heartedly made my bed. After she yanked the covers from my bed on multiple occasions and made me start the process over, I learned the lesson she was trying to teach – to do everything right the first time and to actually care about what I was doing, no matter how menial the task. I took this lesson with me into adulthood and approached everything, I mean everything, by giving it my best.
I was glad when I one day woke up and said to myself “it’s not perfection you should aspire to attain, Erica, but excellence. Do what you do from a place of excellence, not perfection, it just doesn’t exist”. This is the self-dialogue I had with myself and it has helped me to this very day. I must say, I still do spend more time on tasks than I should, and take more precaution ensuring that the “t’s” are crossed and the “i’s” are dotted, but I don’t beat myself up if I happen to miss one cross or if I miss one dot along the way.
Now, I know excellence is relative and means different things to different people and to different groups or organizations.
One thing I believe we can all agree upon is that excellence is a call above mediocrity. It is a call to giving one’s best. `No matter one’s position - restaurant greeter, janitor, teacher, or CEO – make it your aim to give your very best in the spirit of excellence. In all you do, in word or deed, know that you are not doing it unto yourself. If you keep this at the forefront of your mind, you will not fail. You will be able to lay your head down at night knowing that you gave your all.
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