A few weeks ago, I was doing an online spin class and one of the people in the class had the username #mystrongestself.  I think that is a fantastic form of self-motivation by acknowledging that every time you are exercising you are being the strongest version of yourself. The key to that name and hashtag was the word MY, signifying ownership of the process and journey.

You might ask – what if you are having an off day and feeling weaker than normal?  That’s ok too – you are the strongest version of yourself in the context of that day or hour.

This got me thinking about the work I do with individuals and business around being excellent.  - “showing up as the best version of yourself every day”. If we can show up every time we exercise as the “strongest version of ourselves” then why can't we show up every day as excellent, being the best version of ourselves?

We often talk about force fields.  How about having an excellence FIELD around you. These five areas will give you some ideas on developing your journey to excellence.

F – First -  Our most basic human tendency is put off the tasks that we see as hard. However on of the traits of excellent people is that they do their hard tasks first.  The simple psychology is that once the hard tasks are done, the others become easier to do and don’t impose this mountain of tasks on yourself.

I – Intensity – Developing the skills to focus intensely for relative short periods of time, say less than 90 minutes in a critical skill on the journey to excellence. By learning to focus intensely we can apply that skill to anything that could be work related or hobby / skill development related.  The more intense we can focus for short periods of time, the more able we are to practice and master new skills. The key component is the short term focus allowing us to compartmentalize our excellence journey.

E – Experts – It took me many years and a lot of maturity to be able to recognize the need for mentors and other experts in my life. Many of our expert mentors will only be with us for a short time on the journey to excellence. A time that is not defined by life events, but rather a time period during which they can impart ideas and knowledge to smooth that portion of the journey.

L – Love – The current experts are writing volumes about a concept called quiet quitting where team members are merely treading water within the company with no love or passion for the job or organization. Research has shown that on a personal level having a love and passion for what you do, whether work or a hobby, is an amazing tool to fuel the journey.

D- Discovery – I have a passion for discovery – new places or interesting facts.  This hunger for discovery is a catalyst for renewal.  I treat each discovery journey as a break for rejuvenation. My focus would be directed towards the discovery and removing myself from the particular stage on the excellence journey.

 Your excellence force FIELD provides an easy to remember framework for your journey to excellence.