We are what repeatedly do, Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.
Attempt the impossible in order to improve your work.
Pressure is a privilege — it only comes to those who earn it.
Getting an entire group to excel is worth any number of offended peers. Maybe it is best simply to accept the fact that excellence upsets some people. It always has and always will. Live with it.
Anything done at a high level of excellence always intrigues me because it's the ultimate expression of being human, that you do something, something you don't have to do.
One can never consent to creep when one feels an impulse to soar.
Sometimes excellence has come to mean a narrow focus on a single quality. A solitary virtue is a very lonely, austere reality. Godly virtues travel with companions...The focus on a single virtue to the exclusion of others can be very dangerous.
So often, we assume that excellence requires a monumental effort and that our lofty goals demand incredible doses of willpower and motivation. But really, all we need is dedication to small, manageable tasks. Mastery follows consistency.
When all the pieces come together, not only does your work move toward greatness, but so does your life. For, in the end, it is impossible to have a great life unless it is a meaningful life. And it is very difficult to have a meaningful life without meaningful work.
Why Greatness? … First, I believe it is no harder to build something great than to build something good. It might be statistically more rare to reach greatness, but it does not require more suffering than perpetuating mediocrity. Indeed, if some of the comparison companies in our study are any indication, it involves less suffering, and perhaps even less work. If it is no harder (given these ideas), the results better, and the process so much more fun - well, why wouldn't you go for greatness? … But there is a second answer to the question of why greatness, one that is at the very heart of what motivated us to undertake this huge project in the first place: the search for meaning, or more precisely, the search for meaningful work. If you're doing something you care that much about, and you believe in its purpose deeply enough, then it is impossible to imagine not trying to make it great.
If you have to ask the question, "Why should we try to make it great? Isn't success enough?" then you're probably engaged in the wrong line of work.
When I cook, I'm not gonna lie to you, I'm very selfish, me and my team. We need to please ourselves. We need to make sure that we are convince of what we are doing and eating and that we see ourselves in that dish we are creating. If I don't please myself, it's impossible I will be able to please you...
Your playing small doesn't serve the world. There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won't feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone. And as we let our own light shine, we subconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we're liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.
Launch out into the deep. Don't live in the shallows. Live it in the deep waters. Grasp every enobling experience that is available to you. Embrace every dimension of living that challenges you, that educates you, that elevates you. Live for purposes greater than yourself.
If we settle for mediocrity in the little things, we usually end up settling for mediocrity in the big things.
I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.
I first saw Jim speak when I was 17, and he introduced me to a new way of thinking. He taught me that if you want anything to change, you must change. If you want things to get better, you’ve got to get better. And that the secret of life is working harder on myself than on the job, or a specific skill, or anything else. Jim taught me that as soon as I committed myself to excellence, I would really have something to give others.
...there is a basic tendency in the development of the human personality toward self-fulfillment, or self-actualization. This implies that as an individual matures, they want to be given more responsibility, broader horizons, and the opportunity to develop their personal potential. This process is interrupted whenever a person's environment fails to encourage and nurture these desires.
It's a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it.