The Price of Excellence

Everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die.

 — Unknown

We pursue excellence in a thousand different ways, but for simplicity let’s just consider a person who wants be able to do more push ups — a noble goal to be sure. Let’s call him Jim and assume he can do ten push ups but he wants to be able to do twenty.

The pursuit of excellence is a long and arduous process. It can also be fun and enjoyable — but don’t forget that it is long and arduous. The first step in attaining excellence is to do more, and the second step in attaining excellence is . . . . doing more. If Jim wants to be able to do twenty push ups he won’t get there by practicing ten. He will only get there by doing twenty. How is that possible if he can only do ten, you ask? Perhaps the first time he tries to do twenty he will fail, perhaps he will only do twelve — that’s okay. The next time he tries to do twenty perhaps he will do fourteen. The important thing is that he is trying to do twenty, not trying to do fourteen, and certainly not trying to do ten.

People very commonly practice the same thing over and over assuming they are getting closer to their goal. By doing ten push ups every day Jim will become quite skilled at that task, but he will never reach his goal of twenty. There is great appeal in continuing to do ten push ups because it is much more gratifying — in the short-term — to succeed at doing ten push ups than to fail at doing twenty. However, in the long-term, getting to twenty is worth all the work. As Zig Ziglar put it, “Happiness is not pleasure, it’s victory.”

If you want to climb a mountain you need to climb the mountain, not a number of small hills. So pack up your gear, put on your boots, and start climbing the mountain. If you fail, take a rest, reflect, and then get up the next morning and try to climb the mountain again.

Oh, one other thing. If it’s easy, you’re not trying hard enough.

Master Chris Santillo