May God give us a passion for excellence
• Success means being the best - Excellence means being
your best
• Success, to many, means being better than everyone else - Excellence
means being better tomorrow than you were yesterday
• Success means exceeding
the achievements of other people - Excellence means matching your practice with
your potential
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Excellence
is attainable in any area of life and character, it is found in the details of
all that we are and all that we do. Excellence is built upon the seemingly
small details of every day decisions.
Excellence
is to do a common thing in an uncommon way.
Booker T. Washington (1856 - 1915) US educator, social
reformer
In
the discussion of excellence, we must be careful not to confuse excellence with
perfection—they are entirely different.
I am
careful not to confuse excellence with perfection,
Excellence,
I can reach for; perfection is God’s business.
Michael J. Fox
Perfection,
fortunately, is not the only alternative to mediocrity.
A more
sensible alternative is excellence.
Striving
for excellence is stimulating and rewarding;
striving
for perfection, in practically anything,
is both
neurotic and futile.
Edwin Bliss
You can
be born with talent that may lead to greatness, but people are rarely, if ever,
born with excellence. Excellence
describes what we do with the talents, gifts and personality that we have been
given.
Some
people have greatness thrust upon them.
Very few
have excellence thrust upon them.
John W. Gardner (1912 - 2002) US writer, government official
The
reason for the truth in the quote above is that excellence must be worked into
the gifts we have been given. We are not born with it, but excellence makes
such a difference in our lives – more so than talent and gifting!
It
breaks my heart to see men and women with excellent talent such as actors,
professional sports personalities, politicians, artists, musicians, singers,
etc. who negate or diminish their gifting because of poor life skills,
appalling character and inexcusable behavior.
Real excellence and humility are not incompatible
On the contrary, they are twin sisters
Jean Baptiste
Lacordaire
1 Cor.
2:1-2 And I, brethren, when I came to you, did not
come with excellence of speech or of wisdom declaring to you the testimony of
God.
For I
determined not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him
crucified.
Phil. 3:8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I
have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may
gain Christ.
More on excellence: HERE
