Pursuit of Excellence

I do not believe that one needs to 'pursue' excellence. It is not something to be acquired over time. It is a choice you make at any given moment and all the work is actually in maintaining the choice you made. It is a state of mind that you assume - tell yourself that you will not accept any low quality work from yourself from this very moment - attain perfection - the perfection that shows that you have done the work best to your ability.

Few examples:

• If you are washing your car or even doing the dishes at home, wipe every drop off water.
• If you have two bins at work, one for recycled paper and other for garbage, make sure you do not throw any recyclable paper in the garbage bin.
• If you are waiting tables, just be the best at it - make the customer happy even if others do not care.
• When you are to submit a report to your team / boss, do one last spell check and proof read before you issue it. Make sure you put into it the best effort possibly - your personal best.

Do not allow yourself to do anything worse than what you are really capable of. Why would you settle for less? You are the best in what you are capable of - then why slack off? You do not need to ever compare yourself with others - you are your measuring stick, that is all you need to succeed.

Make a conscious decision to achieve highest quality and work on maintaining it. You do not do this for others - you do it for yourself. And the benefits are huge:

• Everyone around you (Yes, your boss, your team mates, your spouse, and your kids) will notice the difference.
• You will build trust.
• You will build your own confidence in what you do.
• You feel a sense of achievement in everything you will do. This alone will make your day, everyday.

Inspiration for this thought:
Tom Watson, IBM founder - 'If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.'