How do you handle yourself when you are tested and challenged? How do you choose your priorities when put to the task? Do you resort to your higher self when faced with the temptation to stoop low? These are choices you make in the moment of integrity, and they can separate the great from the mediocre. The more you exercise wise choices, the easier it is to continue to do so in the future. When you succumb to the lower path, you are less likely to withstand the real tests that are bound to come in life.
Many professionals fall into the entrepreneurial syndrome: They rush to the office and sit down at a desk. Then they start looking for the most pressing thing to do. Usually, they can release the pressure they feel by tackling some simple, routine chores, such as opening the mail or returning telephone calls. Two hours later, they’re still caught up in overhead work instead of making calls, generating sales, and earning income. They are caught up in an “activity trap,” which impedes the path to excellence.
When you have faith that you can achieve Life Balance, you end up achieving it. Similarly, Excellence means having faith in what you do. This will pave the way to persistence, which leads to improvement. If you keep jumping from one thing to another, you seldom acquire excellence. Excellence requires that you stick to whatever path you have chosen. When you dilly-dally on making decisions, you send the message that you are suffering from a lack of confidence or foresight, both of which are part and parcel of excellence.
People who strive for excellence exude confidence and stand out from the crowd. They are admired for the results they achieve and the spark they create.
Training is good and necessary. But it’s education that creates excellence. Animals can be trained but not educated. People can experience both. Education is the ability to think and act from the knowledge received while training. Training focuses on teaching people yesterday’s skills. Education focuses on teaching them to develop tomorrow’s skills. Education without a vision for a better future amounts only to training.