I finished reading a fantastic book this week by Joel Osteen called “You Can, You Will”, and one of the chapters was about committing to excellence. Two things stuck out to me about what I read.
- Go the extra mile…this makes a lot of sense, but I think the reason I bring this up is because we tend to live in a society where getting by is good enough. Those who want world-class results know that this isn’t enough. There is never a traffic jam on the extra mile, and those who do more than is required tend to get noticed for all of the right reasons.
- You are probably being watched whether you know it or not. I worked for a company a long time ago where the owner seemed to be paranoid about everything—who was talking about who, who was stealing from him, etc.
…I learned pretty early on that if I resolved to do my very best all the time and make the right choices, I would never need to explain myself, so I acted as if I was being watched all the time. As a result, I earned this owner’s trust and consequently was left to do my own thing. If he asked me to do something, I did it. He never needed to double check on my progress because he knew I would usually go above and beyond. I am not saying any of this to brag, but when you resolve to have higher standards than those who have authority over you…you actually have more freedom and you can write your own ticket. You have more choices, both inside the company and elsewhere.
So in a nutshell, you commit to excellence by going to extra mile and proceeding as if you are always being watched. People are looking to see what your example looks like. If you desire to be known as a world-class performer, that’s an excellent place to start.
Brian is the author of the book “Success Profiles: Mental Toughness And Sales”http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00OR2AHCI
