Personal Excellence

Excellence is a heightened state of existence. Pure brilliance has a magical ability to transform mundane into inspirational. It uplifts the ordinary into aspirational, into a shining effulgent star which acts as a guiding angel for self as well as others who are in the circle of one’s life. Excellence is the Alchemy with transforms worthless into priceless.

Path of excellence is often lonely. It consists of those small minutes and hours of the day wherein we make choices about what we want to do, how we want to deal with various aspects of our lives and act on them. Former heavy weight boxing champion, Joe Frazier said... “You can map out a fight plan, but when the action starts, it may not go the way you planned, and you are down to your reflexes- which means your training, That’s where your roadwork shows. If you cheated on that in the dark of the morning, well, you are getting found out now under the bright lights.”

The journey is no way easy. It has its ups and downs. Many a times circumstances do not favour your decisions. Unforeseen priorities spring from nowhere and you get sucked into chores of life which neither inspires you, nor does it compliment your true calling. There are times when lethargy sets in…or we tend to take things easy- we get de-focused. But the true seeker and practitioner of excellence keeps bouncing back.  Setbacks or failures caused even due to one’s own mistakes are used as fuel to move ahead in the journey of excellence.

Couple of years ago, I came across a quote from Lao Tzu, “Great Master weakens the ambition of the followers and strengthens their resolve.” I could not understand “weakens the ambition” part. After all, what is life without ambition- I wondered! After a few years of experiential learning, I started to see the point. Many of us undertake so many projects, initiatives, yet how many of those ambitious ventures see the final fructification? Many of them die right in the early stage. After getting enough knocks and deviations on my certain life goal plans, I understood the importance of “Strengthening the Resolve”.

It does not matter how big the quantity of one’s goals is. Pertinent questions- “Are those goals really worthy? And if they are, then what is the level of commitment I am going to behind their achievement?”  Approaching one’s goals with focus and sustained commitment produces Excellence and Excellence creates Magic!