Our ability to change, to take active steps to adjust when it matters, facilitate success. Success smiles on us when we learn to use the uncomfortable and live with it, instead of avoiding it. Oftentimes, success springs from excellence. Based on our internal circumstances, grit, determination, and the discipline to put in the hard work, as a matter of habit, not of need, excellence starts us fulfilling our purpose and living up to our full potential. Here, how to cultivate excellence warrants good emphasis.
Following on, success stands defined and measured against a set of goals. Having a good family, nice house in a good neighborhood, stable career, social influence, recognition, money, all calibrate success. On the other hand, excellence features as a process, how we do the work, how much we do everyday. What is more, it is about the principles and habits we applied to achieve success, how we used our circumstances, social and business networks, to get to our destination. Also, it includes how we were changed and how we changed others, on the way to our goal. Again, what we learned and what we imparted on others add on.
How To Cultivate Excellence Headlines
1. Fix On Building A Habit Of Paying Attention When Doing The Boring Practice Stuff
To allow our attention to drift during practice means that our brains are accessing only what we already know. In that instance, we activate only the learned experience already activated in our subconscious minds. Consequently, we fail to improve the particular routine and no change occurs. Away from, being really good at something, requires us building the habit of paying attention while doing the boring practice stuff. This focus enables us to make small changes and improvements on what we already know. These small steps feature as the steps to excellence. Therefore, excellence arises from a life of paying attention and deliberate continuous change.
Caution to, simple mechanical repetition of a routine cannot bring to us excellence. We need to bring our minds in on the action and make ourselves work on adjusting our execution over and over to improve and get closer to our goal.
2. Fit Up To Keep Going In The Face Of Obvious Disadvantages Or Constraints
From Humphrey Davy who created the first electric light in 1802, to Joseph Wilson Swan, creator of a light bulb made of carbonised paper filaments in a glass bulb, in 1850, Thomas Edison was not bothered that he didn’t have the first-mover advantage, or the patents, or the necessary technology. He kept going until he fashioned an inexpensive, long-lasting electrical bulb. He made the discovery after more than six thousand tests. Judging from, the majority of effort required to build excellence is invisible to the eyes. Moreover, the effort we make in one field enables us to succeed in another. To illustrate with, the strength that Edmund Hillary built up as a boxer helped him to climb Mount Everest, as the first. Clear with, it pays to do the work over inner doubts and resistance. Resilience puts us on the right track of ideas of how to cultivate excellence.
3. Match Up Hard Work To Appropriate High Standards, Values And Goals
Edison did not settle for a forty-hour bulb. He forged ahead until his bulb could last at least twelve hundred hours. Within, he believed that there were certain standards he couldn’t compromise. His desire to keep intact his core values, beliefs and principles, stimulated him forward to excellence. Threading with, building an excellence habit requires us to stick to our principles, in the face of setbacks, even as our goal changes. To keep our purpose in view always, fits us for excellence. Excellence starts from the inside and flowers out as success.
Along with, when we believe in what we are doing, we tend to put forward our best efforts. In the event of failing, failing publicly, we will be less concerned about public judgment. Contrary to, if we compromised our beliefs or values in order to succeed, and then failed, we would feel terribly bad.
4. Jack Up Your Ability To Deal With Ambiguity For Long Periods Of Time
According to Kerry M. Healey, former lieutenant governor of Massachusetts, “the ability to deal with ambiguity, for long periods of time is probably more important than self-discipline.”1 She hinged her success on this notion. Operating from this perspective remains fruitful, especially when working towards long-term goals, where things can go in entirely different directions contrary to our plans. So, to practise upon this notion, opens us to ideas of how to cultivate excellence. In time, we gain the aptitude to transfer our experience and values across disciplines.
5. Gaze Out To Interpret A Painful Setback As A Step On Your Journey
This stimulates us to use the setback for growth. Unpacking this, instead of blocking the painful memory of a rejection or failure and moving on, we need to accept that each stage in our life is a necessary part of our journey. Adopting this mindset primes us to seek and find meaning and benefit in our experiences.
6. Get Ahead By Cultivating The Notion The More We Prepare, The Better We Perform When It Matters
Oftentimes, when we are hurried or feel hurried, we tend to exhibit a diminished ability to respond in line with our circumstances. Our capacity for reaction, problem-solving, and creativity diminishes as time starts running out. Awareness, proactivity, and preparation helps us to perform well when short on time. Through extended practice, we develop the cool-under-pressure mindset. Taking everything together, how well we do under pressure correlates positively with practice. Extended practice boosts excellence.
7. Fine-tune Your Inner And Outer Context To Solidify Your Oath To Excellence
A small expression of disorder or ill in our external environment can start us into unproductive behaviours that sabotage our drive for excellence. Out of keeping, arranging our backdrop to harmonise with our ideals and goals, increases our chances of living up to excellence. In line with, our inner or mental context allows us to feel more or less in control of our lives. Frequently, we let our thoughts and feelings to go on automatic. However, we can consciously choose to have a great day irrespective of the coming storm or the dreaded month-end appraisal. Our external environment and mental context influences the results we get. Shedding more light upon, what we tell ourselves on a daily basis, our prevailing thoughts, beliefs, and values, can spur us out of our comfort zone, where the possibility of cultivating excellence is higher.
8. Get On For Excellence By Making Being Uncomfortable Part Of Your Daily Routine
We need to get outside our comfort zone, to achieve a little bit more. Steve Jobs embodied this principle in his daily life, and fostered it in those around him. He banished the desire to be comfortable from his daily life, as he knew that to keep succeeding, he needed to keep improving. Unblurred with, his famous closing advice to the graduating class at Stanford, captured the essence of this principle. “Stay hungry. Stay foolish.”
9. Find Out Whether Your Motivation Keeps With “Fun” Or “Seriousness.”
In a study by University of Florida researcher William Hart, he primed all participants with high-achievement terms like “compete,” “win,” and “excel.” All words were flashed on a screen, appearing too quickly for conscious consideration. Then, they were tasked to complete a search-word puzzle described by the researchers as fun, not a serious test of verbal proficiency. The result revealed that some did well while others did significantly worse. As “fun” boosted the desire to excell at work, for some, it undercut the desire for others.2 Insight from, in building excellence, we need to apply some self-knowledge, to discover the motivational dynamics that fit us individually, and then form a habit of using it.
10. Rise To Solicit Rapid Feedback
Keri Kettle and Gerald Haubl from the University of Alberta showed that expecting rapid feedback on a task, spurred some students to significantly perform better than their peers who waited longer for feedback. Throwing more light upon, his participants who were promised grading and feedback the following day did significantly better than those who waited for a week.3 In this, soliciting or entrenching structures for immediate feedback helps us into notions of how to cultivate excellence.
Conclusion
How to cultivate excellence stimulates us into what we can do to deliberately build a fulfilling life. Here, the self-discipline to not sell out, to not go for the easy win, but to stick to our principles and values, when it matters, counts greatly.
Notes
1. Vlad Zachary, “The Excellent Habit:How Small Changes In Our Mindset Can Make A Big Difference,” (Coffee Stain Publications, 2015) 30.
2. Ibid., 54.
3. Ibid., 57.
