GREENER PASTURES: Do Something Supremely Well

It is good to have a motto, or personal vision statement. How about this one: do something supremely well. That was the motto of the man who donated the money to build the drama department theater at the University of Florida. I used to stare at his calm, assured portrait at the theater’s entrance while on breaks from doing undergraduate theater, when I was neither calm nor assured, as I strove to accomplish his words.

Doing something supremely well is what excellence is about: striving to do your best at whatever you do – and enjoying yourself in the process, as well as accepting yourself, without which you cannot do your best.

I remember talking about excellence at the Honor Society Induction Ceremony at a local high school. I told the inductees that there were five prerequisites to attaining excellence:

First, you have to have passion or desire. People who do great things first dream great dreams. Every great invention was proceeded by great desire and dreaming. Permit yourself to desire and dream, then discover what your dreams indicate you really seek, and who you really are, or at least desire to be. Whoever would rob you of your dreams would rob you of your life.

Second, you have to have faith in yourself. The most important principle concerning the psychological development of children is the “self-fulfilling prophesy”: our children become what we expect them to become. If you expect little, little is likely what you’ll get.

Everybody needs someone to help them believe in themselves. If nobody has believed in you, you must risk believing in yourself. Rabbi Hillel said: “If I am not for me, who is? And if not now, when? But if I am only for myself, what am I?”

My mother insisted that, “He can who thinks he can.” Robert Schuller said, as the first sentence of his autobiography, “You can go anywhere from nowhere.” Norman Vincent Peale said, "Any fact facing us is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure."

Third, you must have dedication and discipline. Genius really is 10% inspiration and 90% perspiration. Success is follow through. Success comes from working a little harder, a little longer than the next person. Success comes from completing tasks.

Improvement is always a possibility. But how will you discover this if you are not daily striving to do so?

Fourth, you must constantly be learning and maturing. Shakespeare said, “The readiness is all.” Franz Rosensweig said, “I must do all that I can now, so that when the time comes, I can do all that I must.”

Life is a continuous learning laboratory; never stop learning. Graduation is when you pass beyond here, on to the next, possibly even more dazzling learning place.

Fifth, you need purpose and vision. Nietzsche said: “A person who has a why to existence can endure almost any how.” We need something greater than ourselves from which to derive meaning and purpose.

Get your life priorities straight: excel first at human relationships, then at your vocation, then your avocation. Never sacrifice a greater value for a lesser one.

No one can excel for you but you; you simply have to do it for yourself. Go for it. And enjoy the process.