Intentional Excellence: Positive Choices & Actions
"Always do your best. What you plant now, you will harvest later." ~ Og Mandino
A Simple Premise...
There are 10 key CHOICES you make each day that either move you towards success, or holds you back from it.
These CHOICES cause a never-ending flood of Positives and Negatives to flow into your performance.
Smart choices cause Positives to drive you up towards success.
Poor choices cause Negatives to drive you down towards failure.
If you could actually SEE your performance Negatives — you would eliminate them.
If you knew what your Negatives were COSTING you — personally and professionally — you would eliminate them.
These Negatives ROB you of the results you want and the success you deserve.
Permit them to remain, and you will struggle with the heartbreak of FAILED expectations for the rest of your life.
Choose to eliminate them, and you will become successful beyond your WILDEST dreams.
Choose Wisely.
The key difference? A slightly different mindset — one embodied in the following quote by Buck Rodgers of IBM.
"There are countless ways of attaining greatness. But any road to reaching one's maximum potential must be built on a bedrock of respect for the individual, a commitment to excellence, and a rejection of mediocrity." ~ Buck Rodgers, IBM
The idea espoused in Rodgers' quote is quite literally, life-changing.
If you INTENTIONALLY pursue excellence throughout the day — rather than PERMITTING mediocrity to grab hold and take its toll — you will remain on the road to success.
You must actively REJECT MEDIOCRITY.
If you do not actively REJECT mediocrity, you are unwittingly choosing it over excellence — and will be traveling down a road littered with broken dreams and failed expectations. Put simply, you are unwittingly choosing Mediocrity over Excellence.
Here are the 10 Color-coded choices you must make each day, each hour, even each minute, to GUARANTEE that you are on the road to GREATNESS... rather than heading down the road to MEDIOCRITY:
- Choose to be ENERGETIC — instead of permitting yourself to become DRAINED, run-down and burned-out.
- Choose to be PASSIONATE — instead of permitting yourself to become AIMLESS, apathetic and indifferent.
- Choose to be ENTHUSIASTIC — instead of permitting yourself to become PESSIMISTIC, half-hearted and discouraged.
- Choose to be SELF-DIRECTED — instead of permitting yourself to become VAGUE, directionless and uncertain.
- Choose to be PREPARED — instead of permitting yourself to become RASH, shortsighted and reactive.
- Choose to be FOCUSED — instead of permitting yourself to become REACTIVE, scattered and impulsive.
- Choose to be SUPPORTIVE — instead of permitting yourself to become ARROGANT, critical and judgmental.
- Choose to be SYSTEMATIC — instead of permitting yourself to become MESSY, haphazard and disorganized.
- Choose to be TIMELY — instead of permitting yourself to become LATE, distracted and preoccupied.
- Choose to be PROACTIVE — instead of permitting yourself to become TIMID, procrastinating and hesitant.
There Is Always a Clear Choice...
In The Power of TQ, here's how we define the difference between living a life of EXCELLENCE vs. MEDIOCRITY:
-
Intentional Excellence:
Seeing a Negative in your performance and taking a POSITIVE ACTION to eliminate it.
Intentionally.
Immediately.
- Intentional Mediocrity:
Seeing a Negative in your performance and DOING NOTHING.
At every point in Time, you make this choice.
Choose Excellence.
Otherwise, Mediocrity just shows up in its place.
"If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work." ~ Thomas J. Watson, Founder & Past Chairman, IBM
