What does that even mean? That sounds impossible. Why should I care? I’m out.
Well yeah, excellence sounds like a near impossible achievement only reached by the ultra intelligent and extra special… if your definition of excellence is the same as your definition of perfection. It also sounds completely unachievable when you’re currently overweight, a bit lazy, lose your temper easy, are commonly stressed, have a fixed mindset or don’t have many ambitions or goals.
But we can all do things to achieve excellence, be more excellent, strive for excellence… and it actually isn’t as daunting as it sounds. It is a damn good habit to have and I think we should all be doing it.
Why?
Fulfilment. Accomplishment. Happiness. Purpose.
You know, the things that are actually important.
I recently sat down with Lachlan Wallace of Virtus Human Performance in Mornington. A laid back friendly joker on the outside, but one heck of a wise, driven young man on the inside… well beyond his years.
The name of his gym, Virtus, is Latin for the term virtue, meaning moral excellence. In our chat Lachlan discussed what excellence means to him and why it is so very different to perfection.
“Being excellent doesn’t mean being perfect, no one is perfect, it is impossible to achieve and pointless to aspire to. Being excellent is about showing up and giving your best every day. Accepting the inevitability of failure and being able to learn and grow from it. Being excellent is about setting higher standards for yourself based on what you value in your life and continually raising the bar as you grow in excellence. Lastly, it is about doing the small things, step by step, moving that dial forward just that little bit each day so we can sustain it. How do you climb a mountain? One step at a time.”
Many of you that read this are already chasing excellence in some way… by showing up to the gym consistently and being open to learning new skills or challenging yourself to push that extra bit harder. By making small dietary changes each week in order to feel healthier, burn excess fat and build muscle. By committing yourself to 0 screen time after 6pm. By dedicating x hours of uninterrupted play time with your kids each week. By choosing to park 1km from work each day and walking in. By dedicating yourself to 1 podcast a week and 1 book a month. By doing what you said you would do.
By developing many small positive habits, doing them to your best efforts, always striving to be just that little bit better and finding ways to be that little bit more efficient… that’s excellence.
You can do that.
Start now…
What are 3 things you are going to do next week to move that dial just a little bit further forward?
Me?
Be more present and listen more intently at my family Christmas events.
Be physically active at least 4 times.
Spend an epic amount of hours in the pool with my daughter.
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