Pursue Excellence in all that you do.
Recently, I had a conversation with an acquaintance that really made me think about how others perceive the pursuit of excellence. I’ve always found that what drives me to continually improve comes from within. I’m not motivated by outdoing someone else nor do I feel like I need to be in competition with others. In fact, I prefer to surround myself with others who feel the same.
But not everyone thinks of pursuing excellence like I do. While we were talking, I heard that my acquaintance needed permission in order to even try to achieve results that are even a teensy bit better. Her fear of success was greater than her fear of failure. What a conundrum! Everything around her was perceived as threatening her ability to succeed. We talked through it and sure enough, she needed someone to assuage her fears, help her conquer her doubts, knock down her perceived threats and give her permission to be successful. That’s a lot for someone with no more experience than being an arm chair psychologist.
ut what became apparent is that she didn’t realize that we don’t need to be granted permission by someone else to excel. There is no permission validation machine. All we need do is give ourselves permission to pursue excellence.
Pursuing our own excellence does not diminish the excellence in others. Rather, it raises everyone. Never fail to excel. Don’t allow someone else’s, or even your own, opinion of your progress keep you from doing your best. Don’t let their fear of success hold you back.
I recently wrote about this topic on The Awesome Muse’s sister blog, Social Biz Babes, and I’d like to share that with you here as it is apropos. While the article is written for those involved in social media, the concept remains the same. We should strive for excellence in all that we do. We do not need anyone else’s permission to reach for excellence.
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