Excellence

Wikipedia puts excellence as “Excellence is a talent or quality which is unusually good and so surpasses ordinary standards.” These ordinary standards are surpassed by a continuous extraordinary effort and dedication. Thus being Excellent is a long process and not an end-result. It’s important that we realize this because most people around us are looking at the results. The results don’t make people excellent, the process does. A Vinod Kambli or Abhishek Bacchan wasn’t in the excellent league for this precise reason while Sachin Tendulkar or Nawazuddin Siddique are in that list. They made some extraordinary efforts to finally achieve what they have.

Since excellence lies in the process, it’s imperative that you choose the path that excites you and something that you are passionate about. A Sachin would have made a dismal actor and a Nawazuddin would have been a pathetic cricketer. Most of us have deprived ourselves any chance of excellence as we are busy doing things we are second best at. A talented singer is busy writing codes and a passionate cricketer is testing his codes.

Excellence is about giving your best and not just achieving the best. If you gave your best but still failed that is an inspiration for future learning but that doesn’t make you a loser. If your soul is free of any guilt or regrets that is success. The focus is so much on the target that we compromise the process. The target of every young individual for education is a school or college and not education. The decisions are based on numbers, the ROI and Placement figures. If you try and attain the best knowledge this will follow you but it doesn’t work vice- versa.

This is the result why almost everyone is unhappy with his boss, company, job or work. And this is a job that you do for 25-30 years for your life. We compromise a major part of our lives for petty numbers. How many of us ask what the purpose of our lives is? This is an extremely important question. You cannot live in trance and die without making an impact. This life is too precious to be wasted being mediocre and unhappy.

The ones that are most happy are the ones like Nawazuddin or Indian Ocean, who take that leap of faith - A leap of faith towards their passion and happiness. This is when you achieve excellence and success. Excellence requires Passion, Determination, Effort and above all the Dedication to remain on that path for as long as it takes.

 If you have read this, think for a moment that what you are doing, is this the thing you are meant to do? Is this what you are best at? Or are you still figuring out the purpose of your life. Can you waste your life doing what you do now? If you have figured out what you are best at, then do you have that passion? Have you given it your best shot? Why do so many of us take our passions so lightly and end up living mediocre lives? It’s better to fail doing what you love than doing what you are second best at throughout your lives. That leap of faith could start today by just dedicating an hour more!!