Tales of a Double Virgo
Episode #61
excellence
excellence.
do you want it?
do you strive for it?
do you give a shit?
do you step out in to your day
with your heart open
your head up
and
mind clear
wanting to do your best
be your best?
do you desire to BE your best
no matter how you feel
or
what your current circumstance is?
excellence is a practice.
we are not born with it.
it takes consistency
drive
focus
desire.
many of us feel
that we cannot DO or BE at a higher level
because we were dealt a bad hand
or
weren’t born with a magnetic personality
or
don’t have the special qualities we think we need to achieve
what we perceive as excellence.
excellence.
noun.
the quality of being outstanding or extremely good.
many of us lean on our strengths
to get us thru life
feeling that our strengths alone
can get us where we want to go.
in reality
we need a hell of a lot more than JUST our strengths
if we want to truly achieve excellence in our lives.
missing piece?
we must be willing to Learn and Grow.
if you idle too long in your comfort zone
in the land of your strengths and superpowers
this can only get you so far.
in order to take the leap to the next level
you have to be willing to fall. get up. fall again.
learn. grow. walk before you fly.
often i hear
when i present someone with something totally new and different
‘i don’t want to learn a new skill’
‘i don’t want to start over’
‘i have spend so much time and energy doing -xyz- i don’t want to be a beginner again.’
???
i like being a beginner.
when i moved to the mountain west
i learned how to snowboard.
kicked my ass
but i practiced every day & learned.
when i had kids
they started out skiing
and
eventually shifted to snowboarding.
at that time, i decided to learn how to ski
-prob the hardest thing i have ever done on many levels-
as a snowboarder, i could go just about anywhere w ease.
popping in an out of trees. steep slopes.
as a new skier
i started to look at the mountain in a whole new way.
i couldn’t just -go anywhere-
i had to stick to the basics
straighter lines
easier pitches
calmer zones.
at one point
i remember riding up the lift
and
my head literally felt like it was splitting open.
i took something i had known well
and completely changed my relationship to it.
my mind was seeing it all differently.
i HAD to think differently in order to navigate this newness.
as a result
i started to think about my entire life differently.
new ideas flooded in.
a new perspective
a fresh look.
it was the best thing i had done to raise the needle in my life.
when we get too comfy in what IS
what we are good at
what comes naturally to us
eventually it starts to rut out the pathways in our brain
keeping our perspective flowing in the same direction.
when we bring in newness
and especially total newness
our brain (and beyond) gets to see the infinite pathways of possibility
that NOW exist
outside the ruts of comfort.
it feels like a burst of o2 at a high elevation.
excellence.
the path to it lies outside of what you currently know
and
within the possibility of what you are willing to learn and experience
with committed consistency.
excellence
therefore
is a choice and a practice.
no prerequisites.
