What is excellence?  I see this question posed often.  Everyone has their own opinion of what excellence means and looks like.  As for me, I have no idea.  I don’t believe I’ve ever been excellent at anything.  Maybe there have been moments of excellence in my life.  I know I’ve been pretty good at times, but excellent might be pushing it.

I don’t believe most people who write about excellence and how to achieve it really understand it either.  Most of them probably have never attained excellence in their life.  Although, that could just be my opinion.  Excellence seems to be very subjective depending on who is discussing it.

I’m not sure if excellence is merely rhetoric that people discuss to sell their books and products or if it is something that is truly quantifiable.  I believe excellence exists in the minds of many, but in the lives of few.  Candidly, if I had to define it in words, I couldn’t.  I’m not sure if it’s something which is truly tangible and describable.  I see it in athletes, musicians, business people, but at its core I don’t know what it truly is.

Excellence is defined in the dictionary as “the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.”  I’m not sure who is measuring and how they keep score.  Is it the number in a bank account that defines excellence?  Possibly it’s measured by the amount of friends, number of degrees, high ranking positions, or social status we attain.

We all excel at certain parts of our lives.  Even if we are the only ones who think it’s true.  Maybe your social media stalking skill are excellent.  In some people’s minds this may be an irrelevant skill to excel in.  However, that skill could possibly lead to you creating a business one day as an internet-based private investigator. Anything is possible no matter how crazy it sounds.  The Pet Rock made it’s inventor a millionaire. (more…)