How to Move from "Good Enough" to Excellence in 3 Easy Steps
“If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it’s a prevailing attitude.”
- General Colin Powell
Each martial arts class I teach ends with the same question posed to my students, “What’s our goal?”
With enthusiasm they respond in unison, “Black Belt Excellence, sir!”
In the martial arts, the concept of excellence is a reminder that our intention is to always do our best and to show up as the highest expression of ourselves in attitude, focus and action in everything we do. We know when we do this, more times than not, good things are bound to happen.
To be clear, I am talking about excellence, not perfection.
We are all human and despite our best efforts, things may not turn out as we intend. For many of us, the pressure we place upon ourselves to be perfect, not only leads to agitation and upset, but actually can be the cause of our inaction. The fear of making a mistake and/or not achieving a perfect result causes us to freeze and stay stuck in our heads, worrying about the possible negative fallout.
Another, more common way I have found we avoid our fear of being less than perfect is through taking “mediocre action”. We take action, but don’t really go for it. We find comfort and safety in just doing enough to get by, "playing it safe", "not rocking the boat" and "staying in our lane".
While this may lead to feeling of comfort and safety in the short term, it generally leads to dissatisfaction with ourselves and our situations over time as we know in our heart we are not showing up as the most excellent version of ourselves.
Hence the martial arts adage......................
The Enemy of Excellence is Good Enough
So how do we achieve excellence in our lives? Below are three ways I believe give us the opportunity to achieve excellence in all that we do.
- Practice excellence in small amounts – Excellence is a practice, not an end-result. We do this in practicing excellence in all that we do, particularly the little things. This might be in practicing healthy daily routines, eating nourishing foods, regular movement and exercise, the way we do our work and the way we are being present and listening while spending time with those most important to us.
There can be a tendency to focus on the big tasks we have before us and ignore the small and relatively unnoticeable things. However, as I often tell my students, “If you take care of the little things, the big things will take care of themselves.”
- Be a student of excellence - Study excellence in yourself and others. Research the people who are doing the best work in your area of interest and emulate their practices. Read biographies of the greats in history to not only understand their accomplishments and struggles, but the daily disciplines they enacted to keep themselves in the flow of excellence (The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a great read for this).
Also, study excellence in yourself. What are the attitudes and practices you engage in when you are at your best and commit to their practice? If you really want to go for it, hire a coach to work with you to identify your opportunities for excellence and hold you capable (not accountable) of staying steadfast in your practices of excellence.
- Surround yourself excellent people – The practice of excellence, like anything, is contagious. For example, have you ever noticed that when you go to another part of the country were they may speak in an accent different then your own, that you begin to pick up the area’s accents, idioms and figures of speech (I know this well, as one week with my family in Wisconsin, I begin speaking like the a cast member from the movie Fargo – Love you, Mom 😊).
The practice of excellence is no different. World-renowned inspirational speaker and author, Jim Rohn often said, - “You are an average of the 5 people you spend the most time with”.
Surround yourself with others who are committed to excellence in their lives. Initially, you may not know where to find them, but I can guarantee that they are out there and willing to support you. Like attracts like. It has been my experience that when I truly commit to excellence in an area of my life, the perfect people to support me magically appear.
This week, I challenge all of us to identify the areas of our life where we can up-level our game in our practice of excellence. Really go for it. Ask yourself if you are really showing up in the areas of your life that are most important to you at your very best, or are you just getting by?
If you find an area to increase your excellence, be careful not to judge yourself for your past “excellence deficit” (the ego loves to berate us for this to keep us stuck in mediocrity). Simply notice it and commit to your new “practice of excellence” and begin to act immediately.
Excellence and “good enough” are both choices and the choice is yours.
Chris Natzke
Black Belt Leadership Speaking & Coaching
PS: I you are looking to get started on your move to Excellence in 2020, click here to learn more about my 7 Magic Questions to Ask Yourself to Create an Amazing Year.