To remain excellent you need to take yesterday's excellence as today's mediocre. It is of no use basking in how "excellent" it used to be. It is very tempting to feel a sense of "arrival" too soon and truncate or freeze your POTENTIAL. Excellence is not easy work. Once you obtain it you have a greater responsibility of keeping it. Excellence then becomes your way of life, second nature. I do not doubt the fact that we are not born excellent. It comes to those who have a quest for it. Those who make it a value to live by. Excellent organizations are led by excellent leaders. You cannot expect excellence from sloppy, disorganized and confused leadership. Excellence takes care of the seemingly small things which have a potential to spoil the big picture. It quests for the original intent and original desired outcome not half backed solutions or proxy. Organizations that abide by this value document their systems and processes so that they are able to replicate their shops or operations anywhere in the world. The systems are made so simple that even the dumbest of all can follow and produce the excellent product or service which the organization provides. Excellence does not just happen by accident. It is intentional
Goodbye to MEDIOCRITY, Hello to EXCELLENCE - Excellence is the building block and major pillar for SUCCESS. It is an attitude that says "I leave nothing to chance, let me do my best". Mediocrity concentrates on sitting on the fence. One is content for as long as he/she gets enough to feed the kids, one is content with any kind of output for as long as at least something has been done. Mediocre thinking says it is OK to be 10 minutes late, for as long as I eventually make it to the meeting. It is the kind of thinking that always says "At least I..." At least there was breakfast (never mind the quality and nutritional benefit of this meal).
Success on the other hand be-friends those who are willing to part ways with being content with half achievements. When you apply yourself to your work, you will produce unique EXCELLENT results ALL THE TIME. If you are to remain excellent in all you do always seek to surpass how you did it last time. Your motto and thinking pattern should say "My excellent work yesterday is what I consider to be mediocre today". For as long as we bask in our past glory and past achievements, we will never ASPIRE to aim higher than we did. We tend to set our own LIMITS and BOUNDARIES that way. I am not advocating that you shut up about what you did in the past, it is important to have a track record of EXCELLENCE which you can use as a reference point and source of HOPE to say "If I managed to do such exploits under such conditions, what more today with more experience, more resources, more relationships....". Your resume boosts your confidence to dive into new territory; it builds your faith to challenge LIMITED lines of thought. Your resume heralds and chronicles key milestones in your life. I urge you today, take stock of your achievements and in bullet form summarize some of the excellent things you did in the past in the order of dates. That alone is a story the world is waiting to hear. It may look small in your own eyes but it will change multitudes that will hear of you. My point being that this becomes your SPRING BOARD to new levels not necessarily making it your resting place.
EXCELLENCE will knock at the doors of those who invest in building systems and procedures. Excellence is not an accident or a game of chance but a deliberate, calculated, planned course of action. You do not just survive and wait for life to happen ("after all I am breathing"). No, wrong thinking. You ASPIRE, SET GOALS, ATTACK your TO-DO lists, SET TARGETS, Review and revisit systems in place to check on efficiency and effectiveness, you assess QUALITY of products against desired output, you keep measuring and collecting statistics of how you can do it faster and more efficiently, you revisit plans and budgets.
MEDIOCRITY is of course better than FAILURE but should never be anyone's ceiling. You rather choose between SUCCESS and a FAILURE than be half of each. Similarly you rather be EXCELLENT or just not do it at all. Wait until you can do it excellently. I can work with someone who tells me openly that "Sir I could not do the work as I realized I would compromise excellence, I am rescheduling to a later date when I can do it excellently" than someone who will half-hardheartedly do it and you look at the finish and you want to die.
Subordinates - make life easy for your superiors, just be excellent in thought, speech and conduct. Leaders - model excellence in all your leading and directing. You get excellence when you sow it and show your team members. (SHOW ME, DON'T JUST LECTURE ME). Government Leaders - just as you were excellent in timeously promising, visiting people in voter campaigns, may you too be excellent in delivering your promises. Heads of families - your children will learn excellence or mediocrity from you; you set the pace for them. When they grow up they want to be (your present title) because that is all they see. In the same light, please model excellence if you are to see a lasting legacy of it. They too will pass it on to future generations. Rather leave your children with a legacy of excellence than all the money you are sweating for now, they will merely spend it foolishly with no vision for tomorrow. Model excellence and you will automatically MODEL LEGACY.
Ponder Points - Think about this- In what way is excellence a part of what you do? Do you pay attention to greater detail or you are comfortable with any kind of outcome? How deliberate and intentional are you when it comes to doing things excellently
Affirmation Points - Say this to yourself - I am excellent in everything I do. I take care of little detail to produce the original desired outcome. I teach and model excellence to those I come into contact with. I am a role model for excellence. I am never content with mediocrity.
No comments:
Post a Comment