I’ve never been a big believer in resolutions.  It’s hard for me to carry them out.  For instance, making a resolution to get in shape and then at year’s end not seeing its accomplishment.  This is why, in the past, I’ve been the typical “good is good enough for me type guy”.  If you’re not familiar with the characteristics of such a person, let me lay it out for you. The GIGEFM type guy is one who is satisfied with almost everything he does. If he cleans the kitchen, and there’s still dirt on the countertops, his attitude is “no worries, I’ll get it later”.  If he notices typos in an email he sent at work, he might think, “Ahh no one will notice.” If he misses an opportunity to work out, “Hey, there’s always tomorrow.” Ring a bell?  Yeah, there are many of us out there.  At times we all have embodied this persona and normally this comes at no apparent cost.  And just like in the example of the email with typos, we convince ourselves that no one will notice.

Truth be told, maybe no one will ever notice.  But ask yourself if you could be selling yourself short. What if you could challenge yourself to be better? What would that “you” look like?  I believe between our everyday ability to be good (or average) and our drive towards being our best selves lies our true potential.  This drive is truly what I define as the Spirit of Excellence.  The spirit of excellence is the push to surpass the average and aim for greater.  It’s not a competition with others but the spirit of excellence is an internal desire to excel in all arenas of life.  You might be wondering “I get you but what does this have to do with me?” Well, typically people are prone to carry around that “good enough attitude” everywhere they go.  With such an outlook on life, we could fail to come into the accomplishment of our God given purpose because of our own trepidations of stretching ourselves to the potential.

These days, we don’t have to look too far to find people that already embody this spirit of excellence.  A commonly used reference is that of the late Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, Inc.  It’s widely known that Apple did not invent MP3 players, smartphones, tablets or laptops.  They merely made these products better.  The motto for Apple was simple, “You do not have to be the first, you have to be the best”.  Jobs understood that even if a delay in the launch of a product was required, it was worth the wait in order to sell the most innovative iPhone, iPad, or Mac.  From the size, to the design, to the functionality and the packaging, everything had to be top-notch.

The same theory applies to us as individuals, if we are to embody the spirit of excellence, it must apply to all areas of our lives.  From the way we treat our homes to the way we treat our bodies, from the focus we have at work to the focus we give to our families.  Reaching our potential involves determining the perfect balance to all life’s demands while still on the pursuit for greater.   Some of you might argue that being good enough does in fact allow for perfect balance.  “I can’t strive for excellence at everything because of the other obligations I have.  I have to manage my time which only allows for me to do things a certain way.”  My counter is simple: organization and discipline.

In order to reach our potential, you have to be organized.  You have to create and prioritize goals, and with each goal, you must have a plan of attack.  For example, I have had this issue of exercising more often pretty much every year since I started paying bills.  In the early years, it was easy, I had just a few responsibilities. Working out at 11:00pm wasn’t a problem.  Nowadays, as a married man, with increasing demands in the office, finding the time/will to work-out had been a challenge.  In order to make things work, my wife and I decided to create a home gym.  This gave us more time to spend together, we were also more flexible in terms of what specific times we could workout but best of all, was the amount we saved for not having to spend on monthly fees for fitness centers! Organizing this was rather simple, the more challenging aspect is being disciplined to keep up with the workouts.  Discipline requires extreme focus that will produce a specific character or pattern of behavior.  Discipline is defined by that person who takes the time to review an email a few times before sending it out to ensure that there are no typos or issues with sentence structure.  A disciplined individual pushes him or herself to clean the entire kitchen because they understand that doing so now will prevent having to do it again later.

Once you combine organization and discipline to your goals, you will be able to strive towards your potential. Artist and painter Satsuki Shibuya said it best, “We are not perfect human beings, nor do we have to pretend to be, but it is necessary for us to be the best version of ourselves we can be”.  This is the essence of the Spirit of Excellence.  So my challenge to you, as we begin this new year, is to focus on creating a spirit of excellence in you.  Write down at least 2 goals and how you plan on achieving them and make sure to have the discipline to carry them through 365 days.  A few tips to guarantee success: 1) make SMART goals (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time Bound), 2) track your progress and lastly 3) make sure to share your goals with someone you trust to keep you accountable. I‘m participating in the challenge myself, and I hope we all accomplish great things this year (remember, it starts with the little things!)

Have an Excellent Year!