The pursuit of excellence and the pursuit of success what’s the difference?
There’s
an important distinction. Success can only be determined by making comparisons
to others, whereas excellence is something you can measure personally.
In
pursuit of success, we’re in competition with some external factors we have no
control over.
success
is generally a finite game. You set a goal, hit it, and are then left to wonder
what’s next.
Success
can be fleeting. It can come and go, and how it’s defined can often be out of
your control. As a result, chasing success can ultimately end up being an
unsatisfying fool’s errand.
On
the other hand, Excellence is about personal growth. Am I improving? Did I
learn or do something today to make me a little better off than I was
yesterday?
The
pursuit of excellence is all about becoming better at what you do – becoming
more skilful, more knowledgeable.
The
pursuit of excellence is an infinite game. As such, it’ll keep you focused on
growing, getting better, and achieving your most significant potential. You always have to provide purpose and meaning, no matter where you find yourself. And this is exactly
what a fulfilling and satisfying life needs: purpose.
The
purpose mindset
Is
one that is focused on the process. It’s about achieving steady, constant
growth rather than finite results. And this is one of the first keys to
pursuing excellence: respect the process.
Traits
Of Excellent People
1- Respect
the process
the
process is about long-term results. That means you don’t let setbacks or mistakes
derail you. Even better, when you focus on the process, you’ll find that the
results take care of themselves. In a way, this can provide a welcome sense of
freedom. Your responsibility is to create the plan and then stick to it. This
is what you can control; the rest doesn’t matter. You can let it go.
So be
disciplined as freedom equals discipline
If
you are undisciplined, you are a slave to your moods and passions.” You’re also a slave to outside factors like your competitors, politics,
or what other people are saying or doing.
If you’re
disciplined and focused on a daily process of improvement, then you don’t have
to worry about these external things. You can rest easy knowing that you’re
following your plan and doing the hard work.
“To
win is not important. To be successful is not even important. How to plan and
prepare is crucial.”
When
you plan and prepare well, success and winning will follow. In other words, when
you respect the process, the results will take care of themselves.
Respecting
the process also means that you don’t have to come out of the gate like a
champion. Your only expectation is in doing something today that will make you
better than you were yesterday. It doesn’t have to be big. In fact, planning
out a series of small, doable steps is the better way to go
2-Turn
positive behaviours, the kind that will help you reach those goals, into rituals
or habits.
Say
you want to write a novel. Which plan sounds more likely to succeed: setting
one big end-of-the-year deadline, or setting a series of goals to write a
minimum of one hundred words per day? The latter one, right? It’s all about
establishing a process – or as Clear calls it, a habit or ritual – that
guarantees progress.
“When
nothing seems to help, I go and look at a stonecutter hammering away at his
rock, perhaps a hundred times without as much as a crack showing in it. Yet at
the hundred and first blow, it will split in two, and I know it was not that last
blow that did it, but all that had gone before.”
Your
job is to chip away a little bit each day, knowing that your persistence is the
hard work that will pay off in the end. This is respecting the process
Unfortunately,
results don’t come just from setting goals. But they do come from forming new
habits and rituals, which only happen when you adopt a new lifestyle. Changing
your lifestyle is basically another way of saying you’re starting a new plan
and adopting a new process. And this is what gets results.
You
might say, from now on I’m going to eat better, get in shape, and waste less
time watching television. Well, that’s great – but for it to happen, you’ll
need to establish a new lifestyle that supports these goals. If you keep
following your old one, it’s extremely doubtful that you’ll get the results
you’re after. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
3-Remove
obstacles from your environment.
Along
with your new lifestyle, removing obstacles in your life will help as well. You
might change your habits by getting up a little earlier in the morning to make
time for a pre-breakfast workout ritual. But it’s also a good idea to remove
temptations from your environment. If you want to eat a healthier diet, why not
make it easier by removing the sugary snacks from your cupboards? If you want
to watch less television, then remove the TV from your workroom. Make your environment
conducive to your plan. It may sound simple, but it’s very effective. Lots of
things are out of your control, but you can control your lifestyle, your
habits, and your home environment.
It’s
easy to make plans. Many of us do this at the start of every new year. In order
to follow through, you need to actually make the change and then keep at it day
after day. This slow and steady determination – a commitment to gradual
improvement – is what separates excellence from mediocrity.
