Have you ever wondered why successful people seem to be so good at what they do?  Think about this for a moment.  Does excellence follow success, or does success follow excellence?  In reality, the two go hand-in-hand.  Let me explain.

We can all spout off names of famous people who completely lucked into their success.  Likewise, we can all think of people who lost their stature by not maintaining excellence in their field.  I want to throw these two groups out of the mix for a moment, forget about naming names, and think about real people you know who are successful.

Successful people are known for being excellent in their field of endeavor.  If you were to ask them how they became so successful, you would get an answer similar to the following:  “I simply worked hard and never gave up.”  Even they can sometimes not put a finger on their success because the truth comes so naturally to them they overlook it.  The real reason successful people are successful is because they committed to excellence at some point (usually early on) in their career.

Now you’re probably saying, “Okay, great, Debra.  But how do I do that?  How do I become excellent when I feel overwhelmed and like I have too much to do already?”

Here are 7 ways to develop an excellence orientation:

1. Decide what you want. Most people are focused in too many directions and that is what makes you feel overwhelmed.  It’s okay to have lots of goals and many things that you want.  But what is the one thing, the most important thing that, if you accomplished it, would lead to all your other goals?  Focus on that, and commit to becoming excellent and get out there and do the things you need to do to make that goal happen.  Brian Tracy says this:  “Life is very much like a buffet line.  Life is self-serve.  Nobody brings it to you.  You cannot sit at the table and bang your knife and fork for service.  You have to get up, accept responsibility, and serve yourself.”
2. Plan everything. Plan your day, your week, your month, your year, the next five years, and the rest of your life.  Commitment to excellence means that you are willing to take the time necessary to make sure it happens.  The only way to do that is to set time aside for becoming excellent.  The only way to do that is to plan.  It doesn’t have to be a rigid plan, but something that you will stick to – excellence requires commitment.
3. Educate yourself. Take courses, seminars, read books, magazines, whatever you can to constantly educate yourself in your field.  The highest paid professionals in America read 2-3 hours per day in their chosen field.  If you just committed one hour per day to this endeavor you would see a huge benefit in your career.  If you’ve read everything for the time being in your chosen career, attend a motivational seminar.  I’ll talk more about that in a moment.
4. Commit to personal development. There are many websites now that offer success tips on how to develop yourself on a personal level.  Whatever skill or quality you feel you lacking, do a Google search on it and you’ll find tons of resources.  If you’re shy, there are ways to “overcome it” or at least ways to make sure no one would ever know.  My new friend Stoney revealed during our last visit that she is painfully shy.  We were all shocked!  She has learned ways to get herself out there because she knew it was important to her overall success in life.  She still, on the inside, feels shy.  So she can’t really say that she “overcame” the condition.  Maybe that’s where a lot of people go wrong:  we think that the insecurity will go away, that we are supposed to overcome our weaknesses.  In reality, all we have to do is act in spite of them.  As Dr. Susan Jeffers says in her famous book – “Feel the fear and do it anyway.”
5. Commit to career development. You might need to spend some of your own money to invest in your career skills.  Do it.  Your employer is not necessarily responsible for educating you.  I heard Jeffrey Gitomer speak last year at the National Speakers Association meeting.  He’s a very dynamic speaker with a background in sales.  He commented that he gets tired of hearing salespeople whine about things like, “They won’t buy me a computer, they won’t give me this, or send me to this training,” etc.  He says buy your own laptop, supplies, and train yourself.  Your can take your laptop with you when you walk out the door.  Training and just about everything else is the same way.  He goes as far as to say that if your company won’t give you an office and you believe you really need an office, set up shop somewhere close to your company – that’s right – pay rent to have your own office!  I agree with him.  I’ve heard women complain and say that if the company wants them to dress better, the company needs to pay them more.  What these women don’t realize, is that by not dressing the way company management wants with their current salary, they are shooting themselves in the foot.  In my experience, employers have only one word for employees who cause trouble at every turn, and that word is – replaceable.
6. Develop self-discipline. Doing what you need and should do when you need to do it is one of the most important skills you can develop.  Planning helps this process but the two go hand-in-hand really.  You need self-discipline in order to create and execute your plan, and planning will help you increase your self-discipline.  Again, there are many websites devoted to this topic.  One of my favorite articles is Self Discipline by Steve Pavlina.
7. Stay motivated. Everyone has times when they want to give up.  When you’re facing challenges and having that feeling of, it’s just not meant to be, or, it’s not working out as I’d planned, maybe I don’t want this after all.  Remember your mission.  If what you’re getting ready to give up on is directly related to your mission, you’ve got to do something to re-motivate yourself.  Read a book, attend a seminar, buy a CD series to listen to in your car, something, anything, to get yourself back on track.  The biggest difference between successful people and non-successful people is that successful people have ways “in the ready” to motivate themselves when they need it.  When things are going well, it’s easy to say, Oh, I won’t need motivation, I’m inspired.   I love my work.  But then other things arise that you didn’t plan or think about ahead of time, or things occur that you had no clue about and “the going gets tough.”  If you take the time to seek out resources that you like ahead of time, before these things occur, you’ll have what you need when you need it.  By the way, it’s also okay to attend a motivational session when you’re feeling good – it just gives you more momentum.  I’ve heard many successful people tout the benefits of attending at least one motivational seminar per month.  If you live in a city and have the funds to do so, that’s an excellent idea.  For me, where I live in rural America, I take at least one day per month to read my favorite motivational authors.  That’s all I do on that day for at least 8 hours.  I also have disciplined myself to read one new motivational book per month, and one old one.  Why one old one?  Because I can always go deeper into that particular subject.  The first time I read a book, I see what I’m ready to see.  The second time through, I get different ideas and concepts, and the same is true for the third and fourth times I read a book.  I have books in my library that I have now read 7 or 8 times, yet still get freshly inspired ideas every time I pull them out.  I’m in a different place in my life every time I read them – so I see something new and interesting.

Become successful, and you’ll have the means and desire to continue to develop excellence.  Success and excellence go hand-in-hand.  So if you’re not already successful, cultivate your excellence. When you commit to excellence in your career and life, success is sure to follow.

You can subscribe to this blog here.

GET CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE NOW If you’d like to read all my latest success tips and how I’ve applied 20 years of solid business principles and the law of attraction to acquiring the life of my dreams, and am helping others do the same, you’ll want your own copy of Wake Up and Create the Life You Want: A Guide to Self-Empowerment. It comes with my free report on “The Science of Getting Rich.”

Posted under Education, Inspiration, Leadership, Motivation, Success