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We believe that to be the master of all, you need to put your best in everything. Though through this article, I’m going to give an overview of how to strive for excellence, don’t think that you need to be on the ball in all fields of your life.
So, let’s unlock the door of opportunities and exceed the average to reach higher levels of excellence. Explore your talents and transform yourself into a powerhouse.
What is Excellence?
As per Colin Powell, “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude.”
So, excellence is all about being the best, trying to get better every time. God hasn’t imbibed excellence in us since we are born. Rather, we develop it over time through persistence, wisdom, and smart work. It is a result of an ongoing improvement process. It’s an integration of passion and efficiency.
Excellence is a journey from being ordinary to extraordinary. When you strive for excellence, you experience longevity in your achievements. When you benchmark your achievements, you improve and flourish.
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Why You Should ‘Strive for Excellence Not Perfection’?
Aiming for excellence is relatively easy as compared to achieving perfection. When you focus more on achieving perfection, the unmounted pressure will compel you to make mistakes. Whereas when you aim for excellence, your mind is in a relaxed state as you know mistakes are okay and that will help you to improve yourself.
22 Steps To Strive for Excellence
Acquiring excellence is a journey and not the final destination. Below tips will help you to gain excellence in your areas of interest.
Let’s get started:
1. Keep up your spirits
There’s a simple idea that you should take note of that when you do what you love, you won’t feel that you are working since you enjoy your work. Needless to say that your involvement is a must when you strive for excellence.
2. Identify your skills
When you understand your interests, you are already one step closer to achieving excellence. You just need to acquire skills to refine your talent. Work on building your capabilities around your interests.
3. Read inspiration
Drive positivity from reading good books and gain knowledge from it. Learning will open new avenues of thought, and you’ll be wanting more to enhance your knowledge. A good read will make you open for diversities and ideas that can help you to grow while you strive for excellence.
4. Smart work is the new anthem
Excellence demands in conjunction with smart, wise, and hard work. Though there’s a difference between both of them. Hard work is all about burning sweats without any foresight. On the contrary, smart work is executed with planning and preparation, along with hard work. Working smart not only saves time and effort but also money and resources.
5. Multiply your knowledge by sharing
Have a mindset of helping others. Share your knowledge for the benefit of the people. It will sharpen your memory, and you’ll also feel happy when you’ll see people using your knowledge for growth.
It can be simply like teaching software or volunteering to teach children at a daycare center. By sharing the knowledge of what you’ve mastered, you are in the process of creating a refined you.
6. Take feedback constructively
Excellence requires ongoing feedback sessions. You should not miss taking feedback from others. It hits the right buttons, and you’ll get to know your areas of improvement.
See, it’s that simple.
You won’t even have to bang your head to think where are you going wrong? Just ask around!
7. Handle obstacles
You’ll face several obstacles in your journey to strive for excellence. These will be a result of errors made by us and some external forces. Thus, you need to learn to balance both and focus on eliminating the factors that prevent you from achieving excellence.
Take a step forward and challenge yourself to compete with your limitations and work on a difficult task. Grab every opportunity that comes your way, while being realistic to fulfill the same to gain excellence in whatever you take up.
8. Take a stand
You need to be opinion-oriented for certain events or occasions that are connected to a cause. Even if it is protecting animals, fighting for women’s rights, road rages, saving the environment, try to find your cause and be active to contribute something for it.
9. Listen to people
Form a connection with others by listening to them. Don’t be judgmental, and keep your advice with you while listening to their experiences. Sense their feelings, empathize with them, and then you’ll become an active listener. Their values and needs will fill in your void to strive for excellence.
10. Meditate
It’s the most strong personal development exercise. If you practice it daily, then there’s no going back in keeping your mind at peace, and you’ll be refreshed to resume your aim to achieve excellence.
11. Maintain a journal
Pen down your thoughts in a journal and use it as a medium to reflect your day. It will also keep a tab on the progress you made daily from the day you commenced your process to strive for excellence. Here’s how you create a perfect journal.
12. Revisit your limits
Think about what’s holding you back. Is it the societal mindset or your age or gender? Just decide on what’s limiting you and then release them to free yourself for the task of achieving excellence.
13. Practice reverence
Respect all positive experiences that you encounter in a day. When all seems blue, these positive experiences will be rays of hope. So, be grateful for your health, life, pets, food, family…anything that brings a smile on your face!
14. Paint your face with a smile
Don’t walk around with that dull face. Light up your face and even the faces of others with your smile. What better motivation can be than keeping a happy face throughout your day to strive for excellence.
15. Understand your dreams
Monitor your dreams by writing them down. Then analyze them to make a connection with the hints that you derive from what you dreamt. These hints will help you to aim for your goal. You’ll come to know what to do next.
If you’ve dreamt something unpleasant, then it’s time to face those fears and encounter the darker parts of your personality. Make peace with your past so that you can have a breath of fresh air in the future!
16. Love yourself
They say true beauty lies within. They are right, but it is also right to appreciate your exterior beauty. Love your body, irrespective of its appearance. Loving yourself does not confine to decorating your outer look by grooming.
Instead, nourish your body with wholesome foods, exercise, and some pampering such as a relaxing massage! The journey to strive for excellence sounds fun, isn’t it?
Try these: Self Love Affirmations Top Quotes to Practice
17. Master the art of forgiving
Don’t hold grudges and learn to forgive your loved ones, and even yourself. A very effective way to do this by meditation. Practice love and care; spread kindness and see the magic that happens within you when you strive for excellence!
18. Get a reality check
At the end of the day, you need to be true to yourself with the hard work you’ve put in to meet your goals. For that, self-examination is a must. Stand in front of the mirror and ask yourself, “Did I give my best?” You’ll come to an answer, and no matter if it is a “no”, you need to admit it in order to challenge yourself the next day.
19. Take up one thing at a time
Undivided attention given to one activity continuously will bring a gradual change in your life. Plan your time in such a way that you can focus on one task at one time. Stay away from other distractions such as television, social media, mobile notifications, etc.
20. Put Passion
Go the extra mile and be enthusiastic and energetic in whatever you do, especially your job. Be committed to whatever work you do. Once you are committed, you’ll find ways to tackle challenges that come in your way. And there’s no harm in asking for help from people for the same. That will help you in your goal to strive for excellence.
21. Talk with yourself
Yes! It’s important to make a conversation with yourself. Expect the best from people around you, and you’ll receive the best from them. Moreover, expect the best from yourself. Eliminate the negativity with constant positive self-talk.
22. Take a break
To live a life of excellence, you need to look after your physical and mental state that keeps you going. For that, you need to take periodic breaks and spend time to pamper yourself. Take vacations, go for a spa, walk on the beach, meet friends and amidst all that, use the freshness to bring excellence in your life.
Now that you are equipped with several ways to strive for excellence, you need to understand that there’s a difference between aiming for excellence and perfection.
Excellence vs Perfection
As mentioned in the beginning, excellence is a continuous approach, while striving for perfection reaches a saturation point. There’s always room for improvement in striving for excellence, while mistakes are not acceptable when trying to achieve perfection.
Excellence is a realistic approach, an achievable goal, while perfection is a speculative approach, which is often difficult to attain.
Striving for excellence is a habit; perfection is a one-time task.
Colin Powell said, “If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception; it is a prevailing attitude.”
Even the corporate sector of today’s age encourages its workforce to strive for excellence in order to stay ahead of the competition. It’s the only way to make people stay on their toes and deliver fantastic results.
Excellence accepts failures, perfection doesn’t.
A perfectionist will fear to encounter failures and uncertainties. It’s like walking around with doubts every time on your mind. Something is hanging over your head continuously. It’s an act to hide shame, judgments, and blame.
While striving for excellence shows a different picture. You welcome your failures with hands wide open and accept them without any shame. Your mind is carefree and enjoys the journey of getting better at something every day. It’s an act of pride, confidence, and optimism.
Strive for Excellence Quotes
1. The quality of a person’s life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor.
— Vince Lombardi
2. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.
— Aristotle
3. Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.
— Ralph Marston
4. Try to become not a man of success, but try rather become a man of value.
— Albert Einstein
5. Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing.
— Harriet B. Braiker
6. Learn the difference between striving for excellence and striving for perfection. The first is attainable; the second is not.
— Douglas Merrill
7. Excellence is the unlimited ability to improve the quality of what you have to offer.
— Rick Pitino
8. Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better.
— Pat Riley
9. Excellence is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
— Booker T. Washington
10. Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.
— John W. Gardner
Bringing the curtain down…
Now, you already have everything you need to excel in your niche. When you start working on the above-mentioned ways, you won’t need to envy people who were just excellent in everything, when you were striving in mediocrity. No one taught you how to strive for excellence. But now you can with these simple strategies!
