In the last decade much emphasis has been placed within the church about the importance of becoming a person of excellence and rightly so. However many misconstrued excellence to be the kind of car that one drives and the house that one resides in. In other words the more glamorously expensive your car is and the more prestigious the neighborhood in which your expensive house is then that is excellence. Is that a true definition of excellence? Not necessarily!
Excellence is not in the things we possessed but in the inward attitude we possessed that is outwardly expressed in everything that we do.
You can possess the best of things while having a sloppy attitude and let things deteriorate. I have seen this played out many times as I travel around the world. In so many third world countries in Africa they can get a brand new airport with all the trimmings only to see the same airport in a state of despair within two years. Why? It is not that they did not have the best but that they could not and did not maintain what they received.
Excellence is not just about having the best of everything but about maintaining and improving upon what you have received. Let’s forget the African airport for a minute and let’s talk about your house and car. Let's bring this home! Why is your car or house in the state that it is? So many are comfortable to live in a house that speaks about anything but excellence. I am not talking about the outside environment but what you allow within your house. You can live in the ghetto and still be a person of excellence. Stop blaming the outside environment but look at your inward attitude.
By much slothfulness the building decayeth; and through idleness of the hands the house droppeth through.
Ecclesiastes 10:18
The arch enemies of excellence are laziness and mediocrity. In fact laziness and mediocrity go together.
When excellence becomes your obsession then mediocrity becomes your enemy.
When excellence becomes your obssession then laziness in yourself will be intolerable.
Defining Excellence
In ancient Greece, the word for excellence was arete from which we get the word aristocracy. In order to be an aristocrat you needed the force of arete or excellence. You need to see excellence as an inward force or drive. Let’s get a few definitions,
- Excellence is constant pursuit of improvement and progress
- Excellence is the ability to maintain and improve upon what you have
- Excellence is a constant journey
- Excellence is raising the bar daily on yesterday’s success
- Excellence is the demand of first class mentality in the midst of a third world environment.
- Excellence is doing the best with what you have
- Excellence is the raising of the bar in the midst of averageness
Understand the moment you raise the bar, people who loves mediocrity and averageness will not celebrate you. However you cannot let mediocrity dictate your life. You must constantly be driven with the force of excellence in everything that you do. You will be resisted at first but do not let that stop you. Excellence will separate you from mediocre people as you will make them feel uncomfortable. On the other hand you will attract other people of excellence to further your life because birds of a feather flock together!