Your Commitment to Excellence
“The most splendid achievement of all is the constant striving to surpass yourself and to be worthy of your own approval”–Dr. Dennis Waitley
According to world-renowned sport psychologist, Dr. Terry Orlick, every great performer (in sport, business and life) begins their journey by answering this very personal but fundamental question:
From a scale of 1-10 (1=not at all committed/10=fully committed): How committed am I to reaching my full potential in…?
This question must be answered with much self-reflection and honesty. To reach your personal and professional goals you must be at a 10—offering no less than your full and complete effort and commitment to your goal.
The journey to find your flow and discover your best self will require that you observe and change your current patterns. You must acquire new knowledge (principles, methods and practices), train, make mistakes, learn from those mistakes, and improve—day-by-day, week-by-week, and month-by-month, and year-by year. Only through consistent and full effort will you do what others fail to do. And why? Because frustrations, hardships, failures, feelings of inadequacy, lack of energy, other people’s opinions, etc… act as stumbling blocks. NOT the committed. The committed use each of these setbacks as feedback, as learning, as tools for moving forward and becoming better every single day. This is what excellence is all about.
I’ve seen it over and over again—early failure as “evidence” that “it can’t be done” or “I’m not up to the task”. These reactions are normal and common, but there are two roads to choose from at this point: forward and upward or backward and downward. Each is a choice; both produce a result. To take the downward path is to accept defeat and solidify disempowering beliefs. These attach to your current self-image and adjusts it ever so slightly. The next time you have a similar challenge, your personal history triggers your tendency to choose the downward path. Not the path for you…
Taking the road less traveled means that despite the outcome of any attempt, you commit to stay in the arena, learn from your experiences, tweak your approach, and put yourself back on the path towards greater achievement. This is the mind-set of a champion. This is your path….
As we enter this journey together it is important that you declare to yourself your commitment to excellence and to discover the principles and practices that will help you not only find your flow, but to discover the best within yourself. Doing this in one arena gives you the experience and the wisdom to do it in other arenas–even to support others in their quest to discover their inherent potential. Know that what you do will rub off on those closest to you and who you become will make a significant difference in the lives of others.
This week, please take a few minutes and answer the questions within the “Commitment to Excellence” exercise, then be ready to engage each challenge in our series…
This is your time to master a new set of tools, enter a new level of commitment, and explore the far reaches of your potential. Let’s begin the journey by exploring your future dimensions—the first of the five alignments.