Excellence is both a choice and commitment. It is a choice to being the best version of yourself and a commitment to applying yourself to the best of your ability. Excellence is sustained by the application of the principle of kaizen- a Japanese philosophy of changing for the better or constant improvement.
To stay true to the choice and commitment we need to shake off what militates against EXCELLENCE. For instance, the lukewarm attitude of complacency. I would like to bring to your attention, two major symptoms of complacency:
1. Satisfaction with things as they are. Writing to Philippians, Paul says “Not that I have already grasped it all or have become perfect, but I press on…” Phil 3:12. Complacency convinces you that you have already grasped it, there is no need to press on, Excellence beckons you to keep striving and pressing on. Are you affiliated with complacency or excellence?
2. Rejection of things as they might be. With complacency, good enough becomes today’s watchword and tomorrow’s standard. Fear of the unknown, mistrust of the untried, and abhorrence of the new are hallmarks of complacency. Complacent people take the path of least resistance, like water they follow the easiest course – downhill.
Commit to Excellence: “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might, for there is no work or thought or knowledge or wisdom in Sheol, to which you are going” Ecclesiastes 9:10.
Change your mindset about Excellence: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit” Aristotle.
Meditate Excellence: “Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything, worthy of praise, dwell on these things” Philippians 4:8.
Clive Staples Lewis writes “It is hard, but the sort of compromise we’re hankering after is harder it is impossible. We are like eggs at present. And we cannot go on indefinitely being just an ordinary, decent egg. We must be hatched or go bad.” You can’t just go on being an ordinary, decent Christian, giving God part of your life and effort while holding back the rest. Either you are hatched and learn to fly or you are a dud that will soon start to shrink.