How you do anything is how you do everything – Unknown
This quote resonated with me so much. I really believe the truth of the statement and I think that is something that causes me intense frustration (at times) but also garners large amounts of success all throughout my life. Yes, there are situations in my past where I likely did not give my “all” to the cause, whatever that might have been – BUT – I typically find that when those moments are happening, it is most often because I wasn’t truly enthusiastic or excited about them on a personal level.
Additionally, I believe that for a long time I was mistaken in my categorization of myself. I used to think/believe that I was a very competitive person, and I am somewhat, however I was intermingling competition with excellence. Competition involves others, while excellence can be sought alone. I recognize now that my desire to put forth my best effort was never about “winning” or “competing” with others, however it was an inherent fire within, to best myself every time.
I try to make sure that whatever I am doing, I do it the best I can. I don’t do mediocre and I rarely accept it. As I mentioned earlier, I get frustrated sometimes because I often feel like those around me (especially in a work setting) aren’t always “giving it their all” and churning out poor product/quality of work. I understand now that this comes from a number of things, but predominantly (for me) I have to recognize that the fundamental, core belief/value of “high quality output” is really important to me, but likely is not to them. It’s not a bad or good thing, it’s just a thing, but it is an important “thing” to help me balance my expectations.
Looking at our actions, I know that I want to practice excellence in all the things I do. Yes, there are times that it might matter more, or be more apparent because it will be seen externally, but why NOT try to be excellent? Why not hold yourself accountable? If you’re unwilling to exhibit or strive for excellence, then you can’t reasonably expect it from anyone else, right? I am a firm believer that I cannot, will not and do not ask anything of people that i do not expect from myself.
Exceptions aside, such as I do ask my partner to reach things for me sometimes, since he’s taller, and while I COULD get my stool and reach it myself, I just like having him help; however, there are rarely instances where I don’t hold myself to a much higher standard than I do anyone else. This can be a healthy or unhealthy thing though, as I wrote about previously in a post about seeking perfection, which is not always the best way to approach life – so finding balance between excellence and perfection must be carefully monitored.
What do you think? Do you find it easy or not to adhere to the same level of excellence across all parts of life?
DreamerSD 