Six more ways to become excellent in whatever you do.

Last week, I was invited to talk about excellence, focus, and teamwork by Philippine Business Bank. Excellence itself is one book of a topic and I have wanted to share more and make the group work on something for themselves. But time is short.

This morning, I like to share with you more ideas how to be really good at something. You will need more than ten thousand hours to do this, but the reward is worth even a lifetime achievement and excellence is immensely satisfying.

1. To be excellent, pursue what you love. The opposite of excellence is indifference. The converse of indifference is love. You cannot be indifferent about something or people when you have love. Love will give you life. Love will push you beyond your comfort zones, even beyond your imagination. Excellent people are excellent not because they have already measured and ascertained their destiny, but because their love brought them there. Have you heard of Lea Salonga and Kim Yu-na? I admire these women because they show excellence in what they do. Their excellence is not the fruit of talents alone. Love is spelled in everything they do.

2. To be excellent, you should learn how to focus your actions on your goals. Everything that has nothing to do with your goal is a distraction. Procrastination, therefore, is  a distraction. I do not mean that you have to work yourself to death. Sometimes, the best action you can make is to relax and chill. ( I think I need more of this this time). You need to be reenergized. You need your family too. Fortunately, human beings work well if they happy with what they do.

3. To be excellent, do that which make you happy. You can have a thousand of things to do in your lifetime that may help you achieve your goal. Do not short change yourself. Do not believe that in order for you to achieve your dreams you have to suffer. Find happiness in excellence. Use your heart as you use your brain and hands. And remember, tomorrow is not promised to anyone, not even to you Your Highness. Given twenty choices to become excellent, choose the ones that will make you happy.

4. To be excellent, have more courage to do the hardwork. Your brain will tell you to avoid pain and seek more pleasure. Okay, I told you to choose to be happy, but remember that pleasure does not always bring happiness. It is not a pleasure to climb mountains, but mountain climbers find achievement when they do reach the top. It is not a pleasure to jog every day and have six rounds of sparring sessions, but Manny Pacquiao realized his achievements in the ring. Our experiences are different, but I learned that excellent people tackle the heavy work first. They do not allow their brains to make them run away from it. The rest of us run away from hardwork. Ask those who’ve been there and they’ll tell you the same.

5. To be excellent, pick someone’s brain. Everything that had been invented are always based on someone else’s idea. Someone else based his ideas on his experience, observation, and imagination. You read a book to learn something. You attend a seminar to learn something. Now, find someone who has good ideas and improve on those ideas. Losers call this stealing. No, this is progress! Some people are very good in  imaginings, some are great in actions. Be the action man.

6. To be excellent, be the action man (or woman). Only action can truly make you excellent. What you do for the next minute may define your destiny. Stand up then and do something.

Jef Menguin