What does excellence look like? What does it mean to cultivate an attitude of excellence? Is it excellence when you reach the peak of your career, and attain the great heights that you desire? Keep reading to find out.
It is easy to attribute excellence to having straight A’s, becoming a partner in the firm, attaining the executive position, and crushing your monthly margin for your business.
While all the above is a show of excellence, excellence runs deeper than that. It is the step-by-step action that you take that defines the outcome of whatever you put in work to do.
Excellence is in waking up and laying your bed early so you feel geared to start your day. It is in the way you deliver promptly on the tasks assigned to you at work, and how you show up for the things you need to get done every single day.
Excellence is not an outcome, Excellence is the layering of multiple bricks that are made up of perseverance, tolerance, dedication, and grit. This block becomes solid by all these components, and when repeatedly built and improved upon, it becomes a beautiful house.
The above analogy of how success is, is what we need to approach our lives with. Moving with utmost dedication, and desiring to be better with the things that we do. Building yourself up to become better requires a lot of effort and strength, which is why having the attitude of excellence as a part of you is necessary to forge ahead.
Why do you need to have an attitude of excellence?
I’d start this with a statement made by a friend, Aminah, she said: “How you do one thing is how you do other things” This statement is powerful because it is true, look at your approach to everything that you do. For example: How slow it was for you to choose what burger to order, or how slow it was for you to start the task you were assigned 3 weeks ago, and how you didn’t start to get ready for that event until 7:40 am, when you know it would start by 8:00am; this nonchalance is reflective all through the tasks that you engage in, and you notice the patterns.
In the world, thriving involves doing the things that need to be done, when it needs to get done— this makes you seen as a person of excellence in the society. With everything that we do, there is an attitude involved. It may be of neglect towards task/ avoidance or procrastination of what needs to be done.
Being deliberate about the attitude we cultivate, in this case, excellence, becomes crucial.
Choosing to have an attitude of excellence towards your affairs is one of the best decisions that you would make. This means your work delivery is better, your life choices are more deliberate, your health is taking a great turn and you feel better than you’ve ever felt.
What are the tools you need to cultivate this attitude of excellence?
Embrace Repetition: Repetition is very important to one’s life because most of the things we need to do to build a great career involves being able to repeat tasks countless times until you become a professional at it. Viewing repetition as gaining mastery instead of being boring helps.
Delegate Task: When you are overwhelmed by many things, getting help is crucial. Delegation helps you focus on more important and urgent tasks that you need to do.
Be Deliberate: You have to want it. Be intentional about your desired outcome and be willing to put in the daily work to get to where you need to be.
Perseverance: This is the hallmark of strength. It stretches you, and if you allow it, it takes you to heights that you can’t imagine. Perseverance is having fun activities to do but still continuing with the task that you have at hand, or reading for that exam. To do this effectively, keeping the reward for your task in mind helps you stay on track. “If I stay awake to read, I might get an A, and this will help me get a good job that will make me support my family, and live the life I want”.
Self-discipline: No one is coming to save you. The only one who can help you is yourself. If you want to change your life, or reform it, everything you have is within your grasp and you have to decide, and start. Self-discipline is holding yourself to responsibility and accountability in all that you do.
Consistency: Consistency is a product of discipline. It is how you’re able to show up and deliver on your work daily to build the life of your dreams. Without consistency, it’s hard to build anything.
Traits of People with an Attitude of Excellence
- Honesty
- Trustworthy
- Accountability
- Truthfulness
- Showing responsibility
- Leadership
Conclusion
Having an attitude of excellence is a prerequisite to success nowadays; it puts you in a position where people want to have you on their team and work with you. To cultivate this attitude, you have to be: deliberate, embrace repetition, and delegate tasks.