Excellence: Your key to elevation, by Sunday Adelaja

No doubt, excellence would demand that you step out of your comfort zone, which not too many people are willing to do.

There is no excellence without preparation and training. It is what you do in secret that determines your public manifestation. Those hours of preparation are never in vain. They would handsomely reward you sometime in the future. When your training and preparation is constant enough to lead to excellence, one day excellence would elevate you. Excellence would crown your efforts. Excellence would bring about your celebration. Excellence would lay a table before you, in the presence of your colleagues, after they come back from their sun basking.

Many people dream of getting promoted in their jobs. They long for dream jobs. Most people I know aspire to be the best where they are. In all areas of life, people have the dreams of becoming the best and attaining the pinnacle of their professions. Unfortunately, most of the people who aspire to get to the heights of their professions are mostly interested in this for the money. Whereas excellence should have been the motivation.

When we aspire for promotion and desire elevation in our places of work, for the sake of excellence rather than for money, we become better people. Unfortunately, the power of money seems to be the greatest driving force for most people. When you are at the top of your occupation just for the money, it does not always mean you are the best you could be.

“Coach said. “The quality of a man’s life is in direct proportion to his commitment to excellence, regardless of his chosen field of endeavor”.” – Sherman Alexie

When we are driven by the desire to be the best we could be, then excellence becomes the natural fruit of our efforts. Excellence is equal to self-perfection. The desire for excellence, therefore, is one of the strongest gifts an individual could give to herself or himself. It is better than the gift of money. It supersedes the reward of salary. In the case of the salary, you may have a fatter pocket, yet that does not necessarily result in a greater personality. But when you pursue excellence, your capacity is always enhanced. You mostly become better professionally; in your personal capacity, you are better in your human capital resource and eventually this would affect your pocket for the better.

“I hope you will simply do what you can do in the best way you know. If you do so, you will witness miracles come to pass.” – Gordon B. Hinckley

No doubt, excellence would demand that you step out of your comfort zone, which not too many people are willing to do. It is the unwillingness to step out of one’s comfort zone that leaves most people as mediocre. It is that same unwillingness that reduces people to want to make money without excellence. That is why people want to attain positions without paying the price of excellence.

The strive for excellence is one of the most important aspects of professionalism. No one can truly become a professional in his or her chosen area without the strive for excellence. When you are after excellence, your focus is not on the salary or finances, even though that must be expected too. Your focus is to put quality in everything you do. A man of excellence tends to dedicate himself to giving his best in whatever he does. He sees his work as his signature. He puts a stamp of excellence, by his integrity, on whatever he does.

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This is a major game changer between people who strive to attain promotions for money and those who strive for elevation through excellence. When you make excellence your focus, you become an achiever, sooner or later. When you become as good as you hope to be, in perfecting excellence, you will make rapid strides in your career growth. Moreover, you will leave behind all others who are in it for the money.

“Perfection is not attainable, but if we chase perfection, we can catch excellence.” – Vince Lombardi

No doubt, excellence would demand that you step out of your comfort zone, which not too many people are willing to do. It is the unwillingness to step out of one’s comfort zone that leaves most people as mediocre. It is that same unwillingness that reduces people to want to make money without excellence. That is why people want to attain positions without paying the price of excellence. Any kind of success attained this way would be shortlived. A height attained through excellence endures for generations to come. In the long run, it makes better sense to pay the price of discomfort and attain the height of excellence, rather than maintain the status quo without leaving your comfort zone.

“Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” – Aristotle

Nobody attains excellence without the due process of preparation and training. That is what you do when nobody is looking. It is the rigour of self-education that you go through while others are playing. It is the pain of self-preparation you engage in while others are partying. Preparation and training are those things you do in the solitude of your studies when others are basking in the sun on the beach.

Yes, you could occupy the position, make the money, but you would not leave an enduring legacy. In most cases you would still have to leave that comfort zone at a time you least expect it and at a cost you are not willing to pay. Anyhow you look at it, paying the temporary price of discomfort and getting the reward of excellence is always better than to enjoy the status quo of comfort zone which you would eventually lose anyway.

Apart from bringing you out of your comfort zone, excellence would demand from you preparation and training. Nobody attains excellence without the due process of preparation and training. That is what you do when nobody is looking. It is the rigour of self-education that you go through while others are playing. It is the pain of self-preparation you engage in while others are partying. Preparation and training are those things you do in the solitude of your studies when others are basking in the sun on the beach.

Ladies and gentlemen, there is no excellence without preparation and training. It is what you do in secret that determines your public manifestation. Those hours of preparation are never in vain. They would handsomely reward you sometime in the future. When your training and preparation is constant enough to lead to excellence, one day excellence would elevate you. Excellence would crown your efforts. Excellence would bring about your celebration. Excellence would lay a table before you, in the presence of your colleagues, after they come back from their sun basking.

“To become successful, do the little extra things that ordinary people refuse to do. The little extra hard work, little extra practice, little extra studying and the little extra positive attitude.” – Archibald Marwizi.

Sunday Adelaja is a Nigeria born leader
Transformation strategist, Pastor and Innovator.
He was based in Kiev, Ukraine.