Excellence. The search continues

Excellence is about being outstanding and about enjoying superior results. Excellence is about traveling the extra mile, leaving no stone unturned, and never settling for what you currently have. Regardless of how amazing your life is, the power to be more and to have more is inside of you right now.

Who will you be next year? Who will you be in five years time? Who will you be in ten years time? Are you standing still or are you moving forward? What are you aiming for?

Your life is created from a series of choices. Your life evolves from the decisions you make and the decisions you don’t make. You are a special, talented unique person and you deserve to enjoy the type of quality lifestyle that those in search of excellence achieve.

When we talk about self-improvement, we focus on what needs to be different. Our focus is on the areas where we need to get better results or to achieve better outcomes. The great thing about achieving excellence is that we can focus on the areas that we are already achieving great results in, and then we make the picture brighter, turn the volume higher and really get a sense of how it would feel if we magnified it.

Achieving excellence is all about leveraging off of the great talents we already have. It’s about magnifying the great results we already get. It’s about taking our strengths and multiplying them.

Think of money in the bank. Imagine you have some savings put away for your future. If you leave the money in the bank and don’t add to it or withdraw from it, there are two things that will determine the value of that money in the future. One is the amount of interest that is added to the account and the other is the impact of inflation.

You can control interest to some extent, you can keep moving the money from account to account according to where the best interest rates are to be found. Inflation is an external factor that you have no control over. If your interest rate is higher than the rate of inflation, the value of your money increases in real terms. If inflation is higher than the rate of interest, the value of your money decreases in real terms.

You are that money in the bank. Today you (your qualities, your strengths, your values, etc) may well be the equivalent of a small fortune. Things will change around you over time. You will form new relationships, make new friends, lose contact with some old friends, receive employment offers, learn new skills, read books that will have influence over you, make connections that will offer the choices of new paths, etc.

Quite simply life will evolve. And that’s a good thing, isn’t it? Who wants to play Groundhog Day over and over and over? The difference that will make the difference is the amount of interest (excellence) you can add to who you are today. You need to ensure that your search of excellence far exceeds the impact of these external events. Ensuring that your ability to build on who you are today and seek out constant and never ending improvements will guarantee that the small fortune you are today becomes a priceless sum in the future.

What are the things that seem to come really easily for you? These would be things that are your natural talents? Identifying these things will provide an insight into your strengths. Perhaps you are superb at connecting with people? Maybe you have a gift with children or animals? Skilled organizer? An eye for art? An ear for music? Passionate about making things?

Think of your three natural talents and then for each one ask yourself “who do I need to be in order to be using this strength or talent to its fullest? What do I need to be doing to ensure that my decisions are based on my knowledge of my strengths and talents?”

Think of the 3 things in your life that you love and enjoy the most. And then ask yourself, “what is one more step….?”

•What is one more step to make my marriage even more outstanding?
•What is one thing I can do to maximize the time/quality/results I spend doing ……..?
•How can I make ………….. even better?
•What would ……….. do if he/she was doing this?

Searching for excellence is simply a question of looking at the things we do best and the things we enjoy most and taking them to the next level. Making them even better than they already are.

Excellence isn’t a thing we do. Excellence is a habit we create. When we are constantly asking ourselves “how can I make this even better?” we are on a path of excellence. We are creating a better tomorrow for our lives. We do not settle for what we have, no matter how fantastic and amazing it already is.