THE HABIT OF EXCELLENCE

“Approve the things that are excellent.” Philippians 1:10

In the words of Aristotle: “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” There is a reason why mediocrity is so popular: excellence is hard. If it was easy, everyone would be exceptional. The very nature of excellence is to excel, to be better than ordinary. A more specific definition is this: “Excellence is the discipline of consistently performing towards the upper range of your talent and skill beyond accepted levels of mediocrity.” From this truth, we understand three things about excellence.

First, excellence is a discipline. It does not come natural. Excellence doesn’t “just happen,” it is a condition we force upon ourselves: a discipline. Merriam-Webster defines discipline as “training that corrects, molds, or perfects the mental faculties or moral character.”  

Discipline is the athlete who spends hours and hours in the gym perfecting certain routines and motions. Discipline is the student reading and rereading, memorizing and recalling new facts and information to master a certain subject. Discipline is the musician who rehearses hours on end to train her fingers in the proper motions. In each of these examples, the one in training is forcing himself or herself to act outside of their ordinary boundaries. To do something that is above normal or beyond ordinary to them. This is the beginning of excellence: to push beyond ordinary and consistently force ourselves beyond what is easy or comfortable. Those who cannot do that are destined to meander in maze of mediocrity.

Second, excellence is to consistently perform towards the upper range of your talent and skill. In other words, excellence pushes your limits. It stretches you. It forces you to do and be better.
This is not to suggest that excellence requires perfection. Rather, excellence is about giving your best. Perfection, on the other hand, is about being flawless, it’s about delivering a faultless, perfect product. Excellence isn’t about the product, it’s about the performance. It’s not about winning, it’s about giving your absolute, best effort—performing towards the upper range of your skill. The reality is, one can play his or her best game, they can give their best effort, but still not have best score; in fact, they could lose. So, excellence is not about first place, second place or even third place. Excellence is about work ethic.

Moreover, it’s about consistent work ethic. Anyone can do their best, once in a while, especially when someone is watching them. But true excellence is what happens in the dark, when there’s no spotlight and no one is watching. It is a sense of responsibility that obligates you to offer your absolute best effort in every situation regardless of who is watching, how much you are being paid or who is going to know about it. Excellence says, “It is up to me to put forth an effort that makes a difference, and if I do not perform at my absolute best, then I am responsible for the failure that results.”

Third, excellence is consistent performance beyond accepted levels of mediocrity. It refuses to settle for ordinary, even when ordinary is the prevailing mindset of the people around us.

There will always be chickens who try to discourage the eagle from flying. Friends that don't help you climb will want you to crawl. This is what average; mediocre people do; they try to increase their own sense of worth by diminishing the worth of others. They resent those who excel because it exposes their own lack of excellence. This is why eagles—if they are going to soar—can’t fly with chickens.

At some point, your pursuit of excellence will require you to dissociate with certain people—especially people who believe mediocre is “good enough.” Colin Powell, retired four-star General and US Secretary of State is quoted as saying, “The less you associate with some people, the more your life will improve. It’s a simple but true fact of life; we become like those with whom we most closely associate, for the good and the bad. Any time you tolerate mediocrity in others, it increases your mediocrity.

An important discipline of successful people is discretion in their choice of associates. They don’t surround themselves with people that simply make them feel good by affirming their status quo. They surround themselves with possibility thinkers—people that challenge them. If you are serious about the next level, stop associating with people who are aiding and abetting your mediocrity. Yes, we need encouragement when we fail; yes, we need friends who will inspire us to get up when we are down. But true inspiration and encouragement should never make an eagle feel content about living in a chicken coop, it should challenge him to see his own potential and God-given abilities. It should inspire him to get up and try again, to do better, to flap his wings harder, to fly longer, to expect more from himself until he achieves what God has created him to do.

(This is an excerpt from Gregg Johnson’s newest book, Upward! Taking Your Life to the Next Level. Look for it soon on Amazon and www.greggtjohnson.com)
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