Your Best Foot Forward

Do your best

If you are going to achieve excellence in big things, you develop the habit in little matters. Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude.     

Colin Powell

Aim to work at the peak of your abilities. Excellence is the mark of someone who wants to be at the top of their game in whatever area of life. It is a lofty ambition that shouldn’t be taken lightly. A majority of the people are comfortable with good enough. Little do we realize that good enough keeps us from the best. Nobody is called to do just good enough. We are required to constantly put our best foot forward.

If you had a choice between two doctors  or service providers in whatever industry and you got to know that one gives exceptional service while the other one does just the bare minimum., is there doubt about who you would want to serve you?

Excellence is a virtue espoused in God’s word. God’s word tells us Colossians 3:23 Whatever you do whether in word or deed, do it with all your heart. Do it as unto the Lord and not as unto men. I do not care what your religion is or who you hold in the highest esteem. One thing I know is that you will always give the best when dealing with that person you esteem highly. Assume that you are serving the President of your Republic, doesn’t it go without saying that you will want to give your very best? Now that should be your attitude and approach irrespective of who you are serving. You need to be known for the thoroughness with which you do things. Resist the temptation to be average or at worst mediocre. Instead endeavor to deliver great results every time you are tasked with something. Make excellence your trademark and you will never run out of people to serve.

So what is excellence if we are to delve deeper into the conversation?

Dictionary.com defines excellence as the fact or state of excelling; superiority; eminence. Among the synonyms given for the word excellence are preeminence, distinction, transcendence, merit and virtue.

The Collins dictionary defines it as the state or quality of excelling or being exceptionally good; extreme merit; superiority. We are talking about something being of high quality.

The idea is that to pursue excellence means you are not willing to settle for the ordinary. You are committed to giving that which is outstanding and beyond expectation. You are not here just to participate, you are here to excel. Upon you is the ability to be the very best at what you do. Most of the time, we just haven’t made up our minds that we want to excel. Some of us do not want to commit to excellence because it can be very demanding. When you think about it though, you realize that a lot of the hurt we see around us is because somebody chose to be sloppy about their job. A lousy father or mother will bring up children who are a problem to the society. A sloppy engineer will oversee projects that will collapse and cause injuries or loss of life. A doctor who does just good enough will inevitably lose patients who would have survived if handled better. A lousy teacher/lecturer will churn out half-baked graduates who need extra training before they are useful in the marketplace. I could go on and on but I know you get the picture. Think about the consequences of doing your job minus that pursuit for excellence. Who is likely to suffer? What is likely to go wrong? When you answer these questions honestly, you will ditch your pleasure and begin to put your best foot forward.

In a world of extreme competition, an excellent approach to anything you are doing sets you apart from the crowd. Anyone who excels at what they do, has people beating a path to their door. I saw someone comparing what Cristiano Ronaldo earns to what scientists and researchers earn and feeling that there is a discrepancy. The argument was: what is the value that Ronaldo brings compared to what scientists can do with regard to finding solutions to COVID 19? The feeling was that what the researchers do is highly valuable and they should be compensated more. I agree with this reasoning to a certain extent but I have a different view as well. Whereas everybody needs to be compensated well and relative to their contribution, there is also the reality that in every field some people stand head and shoulders above the rest. For every Cristiano Ronaldo, there are thousands of footballers who are struggling to make ends meet. In the same breath for the thousands of poorly remunerated researchers there are a few who earn very highly. The reason is that they are perceived as highly valuable in their respective fields. One of the things that increases your perceived value in the marketplace, is the excellence with which you carry out your duties or responsibilities. You see Ronaldo excels at entertaining football fans with what he can do on the field of play. Truth be told we rank entertainment very highly; perhaps more highly than we ought to but it is what it is. Those scientists who earn more than others also have something outstanding about them. And I argue that among other things, they execute their roles with a spirit of excellence which is a tall order for a majority of those who complain about discrepancies. To put it lightly, for every Kempinski, there are thousands of Kibandaskis. People choose Kempinski because of the attention to detail and what goes into delivering that experience. It’s not about the food per se because it’s no different at the Kibandaski, it’s the quality of the delivery that determines where people flow to.

Excellence is a journey. You must make up your mind that you will not give anything less than the best every single day as you step out. You do not have to wait for anything or anyone. You must start right where you are in your pursuit for excellence. If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work. Thomas J. Watson.

Like breathing, you need to cultivate it until it becomes second nature. The more you work at it, the more you will see room to get better. When you become complacent, you lose your ability to improve and settle for something less than the best.

Excellence brings with it a number of benefits including an increase in your confidence and self-esteem. There is an appreciation you have for yourself when you know you gave your best to your tasks. It also earns you recognition and praise. You cannot hide excellent work. It has a way of rising to the top. People take note of anyone who is going above and beyond. With recognition comes reward and promotion. Opportunities keep flowing in the way of those who are excelling at their current station. Excellence glorifies God. When we do well, it reflects well on our Creator because we have brought the best attributes within us.

I will wrap it up with a quote from Aristotle. ‘Excellence is never an accident. It is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, and intelligent execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives - choice, not chance, determines your destiny.     

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You want to go deeper into the excellence conversation? Hit me up on WhatsApp +254725832477 or Email: samuelmwinamoa@gmail.com

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