I like to cook. However, my family gets much less excited than I do when I’m in charge than when Nana is cooking. My mother-in-law is an excellent cook who taught my wife to cook – guess what, she’s excellent too. I suppose I could become an excellent cook, though with such talent around me, what’s the motivation?
Today I want to share with you a strategy for being a person who is known for excellence.
But why would you want to be excellent? Simply this, I believe that you were created for so much more than your current performance. You have talent and passions that could become your excellent. It’s why my mentor, John Maxwell, states, “There are 2 great days in your life: the day you were born and the day you discover why.”
Many never get to excellence. They’re happy with average or satisfied with good-enough because they are unwilling to pay the price to become all that they could be.
Ted Engstrom, in his book, “The Pursuit of Excellence,” asks me and you: “How much are you willing to pay in hard work, patience, sacrifice and endurance?” Then he sets up a 5 point strategy for becoming a person of excellence that requires deliberate, careful, relentless ACTION.
5 POINT STRATEGY
- Make something happen. With your specific goal in mind (new years resolution, career goal, school aspiration, family objectives) what can you, what can I do for just 1 hour a day, 5 days a week, 20 hours a month to get closer to that goal?
- Value your mistakes. Achieve success through failure. Every story of success is filled with failures – we just rarely get there. And in our social media world, we gloss over and photo shop our life. Embrace failure as your friend and learn.
- Attitude matters more than you know. “With ordinary talent and extraordinary perseverance, all things are attainable.” T.F. Buxton. Fear is something you learned, you can unlearn it. Stop blaming and take responsibility for the one thing no one can steal from you: your attitude.
- Refuse average. Status quo is just another word for the mess we’re in. Could you become excellent in discipline, vision, humility, confidence, patience, integrity or even anger.
- Get Creative. You’ve been given gifts in a combination that no one else has, but like milk in the fridge, if you don’t use it, it’ll go sour. The bigger your dreams the more creativity and courage you will require.
My biggest enemy is lack of focus – I try to be good at too many things. My second enemy is self confidence – I don’t see the potential in me as clearly as my Creator does.
Here are some phrases that are helping me to become EXCELLENT:
- Please be patient with me. God is not finished with me yet.
- The most grievous crime we commit to aiming too low. What are you uniquely designed to be great at.
- Chose your top priority and stick with it.
- It’s always too soon to quit.
- How many people who gave up, gave up just before they would have been successful.
- Just 5 minutes more.
- Take courage. The one in you is greater than the one in the world.
Now please, go become excellent. We’re all cheering you on!
