Excellence v. Perfection

Have I mentioned this before? Probably. It is a recurring theme…I tell my friends, my students, strangers at the dog park…you shouldn’t aim for perfection…only God is perfect…the rest of us should shoot for Excellence. That is attainable. Personal Excellence, not something shrink-wrapped and sold to you from magazines or Insta feeds.

My Excellent looks different every day. Some days I am a rock star and I clear every single thing I have planned for the day, plus a few extra things. I get my Christmas shopping done in August, my cards are ready to mail the Monday after Thanksgiving, and have lost twenty pounds by my personal deadlines.

Most days, though, my Excellence is only about 80 percent…maybe 60 per cent. I am doing well to have remembered to put on pants. I always do my very best.

Try to give yourself permission to give your excellent best effort today. Whatever that looks like. Don’t compare it to anyone else’s Wednesday. Just yours. On a day like today…cold, blustery, damp…my Excellent is to have finished teaching my classes, made it to the dentist on time, not biting him (despite a certain provocation), and making it back for the garage door guy to fix things. I may be finished for today, and that’s okay.

In fact, it is Excellent.