The path to excellence

How do you move from good to best? From average to excellent? Most of us, if asked, would say we want to do excellent work. Whether it is on-air radio performance, television production, technical efforts, programming, or mentoring/managing, we want to do our very best.

Jim Collins, the author of Good to Great, says, “Good is the enemy of great. And that is one of the key reasons why we have so little that becomes great.”

We can all come up with reasons we don’t achieve excellence. There is the press of time. We have to get something done right away and stop short of that something achieving greatness. We have the barrier of the work load. We have so much to do, and we can’t give enough attention to take a project beyond what is good.

Yet, we have this nagging feeling that we are not living up to our potential…that we are not being as effective as possible…that we are coming up short on the “excellence” scale. The fact is, we are missing the mark of excellent work.

A couple of thoughts to help put you on the path to excellence. Thomas J. Watson was the visionary leader that led IBM in its early days. Among his many quotes, this one stands out to me.

[blockquote author=”” link=”” target=”_blank”]

If you want to achieve excellence,

you can get there today. As of this second,

quit doing less-than-excellent work.

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It is a matter of setting your mind on excellence, and rejecting anything that doesn’t lead to that standard. As of this second…

And, remember that as servants of the Lord Jesus, we have a higher calling than just excellence for excellence sake.

[blockquote author=”Colossians 3:23-24 MSG” link=”” target=”_blank”]

…don’t just do the minimum that will get you by.

Do your best…. Keep in mind always that the

ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ.

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And, as if God knew about your work load (He does!), His Spirit inspired the Apostle Paul to write this admonition.

[blockquote author=”Galatians 6:9 NLT” link=”” target=”_blank”]Let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.[/blockquote]

The path to excellence?

• Set a high standard.
• Remember whom you serve.
• And start right this minute to do excellent work.
• …for God’s glory and your good.