Excellence is a way of life that requires strong emotional intelligence, focus, passion, and energy. The journey toward excellence can be challenging, but you’ll quickly progress when you try to develop habits that allow you to thrive.
Raising the Bar: The Role of Excellence in Professional Achievement
Is excellence at the top of your priority list? If so, do you maximize your potential to be your very best?
Aristotle once wrote, “Excellence is an art won by training and habituation.” In other words, we can achieve excellence, thus becoming a habit. To succeed, we must focus on the most important things in life. These things may require us to make tough decisions.
The Pursuit of Excellence
How many of us take on more than we should? It’s problematic when we spread ourselves too thin because it prevents us from performing at our best. When this occurs, excellence gets moved down the priority list, reducing our momentum. Undeniably, the pursuit of excellence can be a rocky road, especially if you’re living what I refer to as a “drive-by life”. I’m guilty of cramming too much into my day, often driven by my passion; however, this can derail my journey to excellence.
Realizing We Are a Work in Progress
Our lives are a work in progress; we make lists and choices that directly impact us. Living a life of excellence requires the practice of emotional intelligence competencies such as self-awareness and self-reflection. We must examine our priorities. You will find this topic covered in-depth in my book, The Power of Emotion.
Excellence Does Not Mean Perfection
It is vital to recognize the benefits of focusing on self-improvement rather than perfection and the importance of making errors and learning from them. We all make mistakes and take the odd wrong turn on our life’s journey. But if we pause long enough each day to prioritize what’s important to us, we’ve cleared the path ahead for progress and the next steps toward excellence.
Five Strategies to Get You Back on Track:
- Visit your values - what really matters to you?
- Listen more than you speak.
- Get in tune with your emotions; they send important messages.
- Get to know what makes you tick.
- Strengthen your focus to be more productive.
It’s never too late to up your game and create your journey to excellence. If you’re interested in developing these skills, I’d recommend you consider my consulting services and emotional intelligence training. Make your professional life a priority and your personal life will reap the benefits.
This article was originally published on April 13, 2019, and has been updated (June 2023).
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