Excellence, as a Success Habit

Lots of people refer to the Holy Bible as the “good book,” but few refer to the Bible when they look for lessons, but it remains a fact that most motivational speakers, teachers, and authors refer to the Bible as the best motivational book ever published. We draw our success lesson from the Bible in this article, as we seek to inspire you to be the best you can ever be, and thus ensure that you live a life of significance!

The Bible gives an account of the life of Daniel and his prophecies that amaze a lot of people, and surely gets a lot of people desiring to have the attributes that such a noble man like Daniel possessed. One attribute that clearly stood out about Daniel is Excellence!

Daniel 6 verse 3 says, “Then this Daniel was preferred above the presidents and princes, because an excellent spirit was in him; and the king thought to set him over the whole realm.”

A brief background check about Daniel will inform you dear reader that Daniel was a captive from Israel who was taken in by King Nebuchadnezzar. Being a slave did not stand in his way to greatness or significance because an excellent spirit was in him; in fact the king sought to put him above all the Presidents of the land, meaning he desired to put him above all people in the land except him.

Many of us, as said before, desire to be promoted. We all desire to reach the pinnacle or summit of our professions or careers. We all yearn to be recognised by the people in power and to be rewarded. The trick lies in developing a habit of excellence in all you do. While many are trying to use various trickeries and gimmicks to get attention or to be noticed few ever get their pulse to the secret. The secret is simply Excellency!

In a world where many are so immersed in their struggles and what is not going on so well for them, few people care enough to focus on their duties and tasks. The result is poorly done, undercooked, half- baked shoddy products that do not meet the least standards expected of them. This is why they get noticed, but rather in a negative way. They build a reputation of failure, of poor quality, of substandard work and everything negative that can be churned out by an individual.

Never get this twisted; everyone should be an attention seeker! You might not believe it, but this is the real truth of the matter. In fact attention seeking is a survival or success strategy. When you hear people saying someone is an attention seeker, all they are really saying is that they are making so much noise but they can’t back it with action and results. The banal and average are the ones always convicted of this crime, because they try and invent all sort of tricks to draw attention to themselves as if to compensate for their poor performance.

Those who really excel will always get attention even if they try their best to be discrete. An excellent person can be likened to a shining beacon of light in pitch black darkness; you can’t help but just notice them. The best way to earn the attention that really matters is simple; excel in what you do always.

The following are some simple ways to help you to develop excellence as habit:

1.      Always go further than expected: Most people have a habit of doing just what is required of them. They meet the minimum expectations then they stop. Excellent people will always go an extra mile to make sure their performance is fool proof. This is exactly what makes them who they are, excellent.

2.      Don’t be afraid to stand out: The tragedy we have is that the world we live in today has become just but one colour, because we have so many people trying so hard to hide their true colours so that they just fit in. In schools well-mannered kids are labelled bootlickers or sell outs. Don’t be scared of such labels, it’s just an affirmation from the average that they admire your being exceptionality. Rather wear those tags as a symbol of honour.

3.      Define your Core Values: Daniel was a captive in a foreign land but he never forsook his Israelite values and that made him the excellent man he was. All excellent people have a set of values and that is the mainstay of their excellence. Define and develop yours.

The world is so awash with average performances, which is why it will stand still for excellence!

The writer is a motivational Speaker

He can be contacted on glendhliwayo@gmail.com