Whether you are an engineer, doctor, carpenter, actor, blogger, teacher, coffee maker or student, we all share a common quality; we descend from a great lineage of powerful and inspiring people.  We come from a rich cultural heritage of innovators, inventors and experts in fields of science, trade, theology, mathematics, optics, medicine and education.

What does that have to do with you and excellence? It means that since we come from great people, we have a duty to also be a great person and one way to do that is to cultivate the quality of excellence in all that we strive to do.  By doing this, you can become untouchable in the recession, keep your job and even elevate to a higher position.

What is Excellence?

It is hard to find a word in English that translates directly to excellence. It can mean to do something with the highest quality, very well, or optimally. It can be to do something with great attention or hard work. But these words are still hard to define further; excellence is more like an experience.

My Definition: In the Flow

Have you ever been so into the ‘flow’ that you forgot to eat, or slept really late into the night working tirelessly on something and/or forgot all about the time? And not because you have a deadline, but because you are really enjoying it and creating something with a real inner yearning to do so? 

For me, excellence emerges when we are so deep into something that all else fades away from our immediate attention. You don’t care for food, sleep or time. Somehow the mind and heart have been stilled from all problems and trivial matters and you are fully in the present moment only thinking about the thing you are working on.  To do something with great yearning and love and not out of obligation or duty, this is excellence to me.

(For more on “Flow” I recommend this excellent book by the author, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, “The Psychology of Optimal Experience.” You can get it here.)

“Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” ~ John W. Gardner

Personal Story

I’m a school teacher and I remember when I first got hired. I was so excited. I got all dressed up, got there early, full of ear to ear smiles, the whole thing. Ah, the smell of dried up paint, the first pencil mark on a fresh crispy notebook page and the remnants of chalk on my skirt and hands. I loved it. But over time, my motivation to wake up every morning to go to work started to wean. Why? Well, truthfully, the conditions of my job were horrible for one thing (that’s another post.) But, my attitude towards the horrifying educational standards were another. I came home complaining about my employer, the school’s policies and rules, the Ministry of Education, everything! And, when I was so unhappy with my job, I started to become mediocre in it and excellence was surely tossed out with the crusty chalk shammies.

But, teaching is something I am very passionate about. I just had to motivate myself to strive for excellence again, for myself and for everyone whose lives I come into contact with on a daily basis. I had to shift my thinking. Now, I feel deeply honored and privileged that parents would allow me to teach their kids and this feeling makes me feel indebted towards my students. I stopped caring about the rules and policies about schooling and focussed my attention solely on the students – doing everything I could to provide an excellent education despite how hard the conditions were.

How do we cultivate Excellence into our work and daily lives?

“Think highly of yourself because the world takes you at your own estimate.” ~Anonymous

Change your Thinking Patterns: What we think and believe about ourselves, our job and the people around us is the foundation of creating excellence. If we are constantly complaining about things with no intended action to change, we are creating negative thought patterns which effect everything and everyone around us. But, with positive thinking patterns we do exactly the opposite, creating a gateway for excellence to enter the scene.

Become Introspective: Look into yourself and really examine your strengths, your talents, hobbies and interests. What do you really love to do, and how you could you organize your life around it? Be honest with yourself. Are you an engineer because you wanted to be or because it is “safe” or your parents made you? When you love to do something, Excellence is inevitable. I didn’t really become a teacher because “I like marking or stickers” (quite the contrary)- but I became one because it allows me to be creative, which is my first love. Do what you love to do, life shouldn’t be any other way.

Identify Key Skills: Select one or two skills that will help you the most in your life and then make a plan to become excellent in that area. For example, if becoming a better writer is something that would help you become excellent – make a plan to take a course, read books on grammar or hire a tutor to help you. Try to work on your job, not just in your job.

Develop Your Personal Stand Out Factor: What makes you stand out from the crowd? This isn’t to be arrogant or conceited. But, what are you really good at, what gift have you been given because we all have something and some of us more than one thing! Use this talent for the benefit of yourself and others and do it with grace. Capitalize on your strengths.

Be A People Person: But, don’t waste your time trying to make people like you. Instead spend your time becoming someone YOU like. And, if you like yourself, others most certainly will be attracted to you because you will exude that. There is no point in being excellent if it brews ill will in people and you are arrogant because of it. Excellence is truly effective when other people can benefit from you.

Praise Others: Find positive things to say about the people around you even when you don’t feel like it. This takes out the negative judgements that might be brewing in your mind and blocking your positive energy flow. Instead, find and say nice things about people to others especially when they are not there and really mean it. This quality makes you appear confident about yourself because you can praise others without feeling threatened. In turn, people will say nice things about you!

Adopt a Creative and Fun Attitude: Excellence is developed through having a positive energy flow. And, having a good time while you work can make it more enjoyable. Anything done begrudgingly makes it hard, slow and boring. If you are not in a good state when doing something, wait, until the negative energy passes. Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs were on to something when they sang, “Whistle While You Work.”

Find and Build On Your Sense of Humour: Also related to the previous one, but slightly different. If you are more of a serious person (like me) this is a hard quality to work on. But, just trying to relax and laugh more will help. When things don’t go right or things become stressful, being light-hearted can really go a long way. And, humour is known to bring connection with others as a common bond of understanding and is a very non-threatening quality to others.

Grab Opportunity to Show your Talent: Don’t wait for others to give you permission to do something. They might not even know you have a particular talent and might not even ask you to do something. Nobody will say no to you for taking on more responsibility, especially if you can do it really well. A phrase that got me through the schools I’ve worked in is, “Seek forgiveness rather than permission.” (Got me through a lot of messes!)  Just go out and try it.  Risk it.

Seek Feedback: While we might we know our strengths and weaknesses, others might see something different. Ask your friends, co-workers, family members and colleagues about their constructive opinion about you or your work and act on it.  (Constructive is a key word in that sentence.)

Stop Blaming Outside Forces: This is what I did. I blamed everyone but myself – other people or organization systems or company policies. They may have some control over the conditions you work in but they don’t have control over your attitude to work in those conditions. Concentrate on what is within your control and that is your energy, your attitude and your personal commitment to Excellence. It’s tiring to try to change someone’s thought patterns, but changing your own is within your grasp.

Seek Challenges: If you are bored in your job, it will lead to being mediocre. It just may be that you are not being challenged. Look for things to do that highlight your strengths and improve your weaknesses. Take on a new task that has nothing to do with you what you normally do, but that you feel like learning. Excellence is about always improving yourself. There is no end goal to Excellence.

Seek New Training: Most jobs offer professional development conferences, courses or training.  I have always felt renewed after attending a teacher conference and speaking with intelligent and passionate teachers.  Revive your lack of motivation with this and get excited again. Excellence is about working hard and learning new things.

Pay Attention to Detail: This is by far probably the most important one. Details are everything! Really train your mind to pay attention to detail. Details can make something to go from mediocre to Excellence in minutes. For example, say you are cutting up fruits to serve to someone. You can either just cut them up, place them in a plate randomly and put them on the table, or, you could cut the fruits in a different style, arrange the fruits in a design, color- coordinating them so they have that extra special – something different about them. It may take 2 or 3 more minutes but that is the difference between mediocrity and Excellence in a potentially small thing like serving a platter of fruit. The person you are serving it to will feel special that you took the time to make it look nice before serving it to them and somehow the fruit just tastes different.

“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters.” ~Colin Powell

The Benefits of Cultivating Excellence

When you are truly working at the level of Excellence with commitment and love and positive energy, other people around you will also feel like committing to Excellence just because you are; it attracts. Positive attracts the positive and excellence attracts excellence. When you give yourself permission to be excellent, you automatically give others around you a gateway to be the same. Thus, it asks all of us to raise our standards of living – to live with purpose and with awareness.

The Pleasure of Excellence: You realize that you come from a great people and have made up your mind to add to this list.

It Gains You a Good Reputation: People will talk about your work being very good and next time there is a need to have something done, you could be the one asked to do it because you did it so well previously.  

You Become Untouchable or Irreplaceable: Your attention to detail, your commitment in working hard, your desire to do things in an excellent manner will not go unnoticed to the company or your employer or your family. Thus, in times of a recession or job lay-offs you become an important part of the team and will not be effected by cutbacks.

Parting Thoughts

Excellence means something different to all of us. Take some time and ask what excellence actually means to you. Whatever it means to you, one thing for certain is that excellence is important. Why? Because everything you do is a reflection of you, thus, it is your mark. The better you are at something, the more in demand you will be. It offers you more freedom. Thus, excellence can get you where you want to be like the great people who have carved the path before us.

An Invitation

What are some things you can change to add more excellence in your work and daily life?  How do you think we can become more excellent?  Share your thoughts in the comments below and let’s find ways to leave a lasting impression before our time ends on the Earth.  Be sure to check back again often for Part 2 of this post where I will be giving practical tools.

image credit: stuartpilbrow

Related posts:

1. Become Untouchable in the Recession Part 2: Practical Tools to Develop Excellence