La Nerde: In Pursuit of Excellence

La Nerde: In Pursuit of Excellencelanerde:

Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary. Warren G. Bennis

We have become a people of mediocrity.

We have chosen to accept things as they are, to limit our aspirations, to douse the dreams of others. 

Somehow we have convinced ourselves that we are not deserving of excellence, that we need not try to be the best at what we do. This complacency and self-perpetuated myopia has dire consequences. Because we do not demand the best, we have become the recipients of a sub-par existence. 

Do we not believe that we are most deserving of a life of excellence? 

Excellence is not an exception, it is a prevailing attitude. Colin Powell

Attitude can make us or break us. How we think affects our actions. If you think like a winner, if you expect greatness and strive towards it, you will undoubtedly be rewarded with abundance.

  >We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you. Marianne Williamson

I am tired of people saying, “Oh, you can’t compare us to __, we don’t have their resources”. Or, the myriad excuses people conveniently make when pressed to go beyond “good enough” or “average”. In my pursuit of excellence, in my growing, I do not long to be like everyone else. I, as everyone else, have been placed on this earth for a distinct purpose; to excel, to make a significant mark. Excuses hold us back. As a good friend, and fellow nerd :), often tells me, “Just do”. If I fail, I fail knowing I have tried. 

Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit. Aristotle (my dude!)

Do not be despaired however. Excellence is not won over night. Construct your standards. Be visionary. Reward yourself. Do not give up. Learn. Share. Do. It is through small actions charted towards a larger goal that underline your attitude of excellence.

Live a life of excellence. Expect great things in your life, and in that of people around you. You were not created to live a life of mediocrity. 

Expect excellence.