Striving for excellence

What is excellence? Some people think that ‘excellence’ means ‘being successful’. Excellence goes way beyond that. We are called not necessarily to be successful but to be faithful. Excellence is faithfulness in a lot of little things that often leads to great success.

Little things are surely small and minute from a general point of view; but it is a fact that many little things make a great thing. Norman Vincent Peale writes, “Just as the little drops of water make the oceans and the little grains of sand make land, tiny incidents form the life of a person.” It clearly points out that the life of a person is the totality of the little things. Sometimes we have the tendency to completely neglect the ordinary incidents of life. But it remains true that a person becomes great by his or her approach to the ordinary things in life.

The greatness of a person is not in waiting for big occasions to bring out his or her talents and perform better, but in changing common situations into peculiar ones. The best way to be faithful to life is to be faithful to the little things of everyday life. This realization will surely take us to new heights of perfection and excellence.

Excellence is a journey and with each passing day you have to keep a close watch on it. Often the most dangerous trap that we fall into is to accept average as excellent. Growth lies in building excellence each day at work and in our personal life. Aristotle said, “We are what we repeatedly do, excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.” Excellence is a personal commitment. It is achieved by people who muster up the nerve to step out in spite of doubt or fear or job limitations. They understand that stepping out and stepping forward is the fair bargain they make for extraordinary results.

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