“If excellence is possible, then good is not enough.”

I think that most people have seen or heard the above quote, usually related to our academic performance. However, I think the idea of seeking excellence over what is good enough can be applied to all areas of our life.

How many times do we limit ourselves to what’s “good enough”? Perhaps we do it in our jobs, in school, in our relationships with friends and family. At any rate, at some point we decide that where we are is okay and that there’s no real need to seek anything better. Things aren’t bad, and we are comfortable where we are. We recognize that things could be better, but why rock the boat? Why press our luck?

I realized the other day that I had gotten to a point where I had started settling for “good enough”. I wasn’t demanding excellence from myself, and if I don’t demand it from myself, how can I ever expect it from anyone else? In exploring how I had gotten to that point where I was okay with what was “good enough”, I realized that it takes an incredible amount of discipline to not settle. It requires discipline to push yourself to that point where you require more, even when things are okay. It requires discipline to let go of people who

God wants what is excellent for us, not what’s “good enough”. So why do we settle? I have challenged myself to only accept what is excellent for me in 2007. Care to join me?