With each New Year, my optimistic goals are shadowed, dogged, by past failures.
My diet of 2013 lasted about a week.
My zumba class lasted several months before fizzling.
My one-year Bible Plan collected dust by March.
My "get organized by April" never actually materialized.
In short, I failed.
And it's hard to move past it.
But maybe I'm going about things the wrong way. Perhaps instead of trying to move away from past failures, I should try moving TOWARD something.
And that something is:
Excellence
Tweet: Don't retreat from failure. Simply pursue Excellence, and success will follow.
Excellence is a state of mind that makes me sit up straighter and pay attention to details. It says,
I can do better.
I can go the extra mile.
I can put away the clean dishes.
I can exercise today.
I can limit Facebook so that I have time for what really matters.
I wonder what would happen if we simply applied "excellence" to our endeavors?
In big and small ways, we would raise our game each day.
Instead of "meh," we'd have "wow."
Instead of almost-done, we'd have done.
We'd limit the things we'd take on, knowing that we can only do a few things well, which is better than doing lots of things poorly.
We'd focus on creating the kind of life that feels good when our heads hit the pillow at night.
We'd pass on a love for beauty and craftsmanship, and expending effort on important things to our children.
Instead of focusing on the ways we've failed in the past, let's focus on moving toward excellence. And success is sure to follow. Often it's just a tiny bit of effort that makes all the difference, and lifts us from mediocrity to a new level we can be proud of.
And, yes, I'm already arguing with myself: "Rachel, you can't do everything excellently! You'll drive yourself crazy." Yeah, my shoulder-angels are going at it.
But I'm not talking about perfectionsm, I'm simply saying that each day, it's possible to embrace doing things better than we have before. We can intentionally choose which things to let go of and which things to apply ourselves to. We can take a couple of goals and work on doing them well.
Why not? I'm willing to pursue excellence. How about you?
What is one thing that you can do better today? How can you apply excellence to your day?
