Excellence

 

You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means. No, Princess Bride fans, the word is not “inconceivable”.  The word is excellence. In our hyper competitive world most people would think it means winning. And oh, don’t we all like winning? But think about the Olympic medal podiums. There are three places to stand, one for the gold medal winner, one for the silver medal winner, and one for the bronze medal winner. The gold medal winner gets the most attention, and we say they excelled and showed excellence. But all three were excellent. They all gave it their best effort, even though just one got the gold.

That my friend is what excellence means – giving it your all, doing the best you can do. Striving to use all that life and biology has given you and achieving what is in your reach. And encouraging others to do the same. And not comparing yourself to others. You don’t compete with others but rather you compete with yourself. It is not a call to leap ahead but to take regular steps forward.

Different people learn, grow, achieve at different rates and in different circumstances. I know of a couple people who worked hard in school. One worked her tail off and got C’s. The other who was capable of A’s sometimes slacked and got some B’s. so who excelled, the one who got B’s or the one who got C’s. In this case the one who excelled was the one who got C’s.

Excellence is one of the core values of Toastmasters. Respect, Integrity, Service, and Excellence. While we do have contests -just finished one season -the real emphasis is to steadily improve our speaking and leadership skills. Everyone has their first time speaking in public and everyone has a different learning curve. But we all strive to do our best. That is what excellence means.