IN PURSUIT OF EXCELLENCE.

This morning I had two choices; watch television while I eat my breakfast or read a book.
What determined my choice was what I believed would be more beneficial for me and my future, in whichever respect and in any way, doesn’t matter how small.

I chose to read a book.

The book I chose to read is by Tom Peters and is titled,
“The Little Big Things, 163 Ways to Pursue Excellence.”

This is not a book review as I am still reading the book.
It’s more on what the book did for me this morning.

When I woke this morning, I was thinking about reaching a higher level of success and excellence in my life, even before I picked up the book.
I was thinking about how I want to reach a higher level of concentration in my life, in my work, in my role as a mother, in my writing and so forth and then I read a blog post on Medium by Tony Fahkry and he wrote on 5 ways to find inspiration in your daily life.

In his post he writes the following:

“In order to create an inspired life, be willing to live your life from a higher perspective”

To me, it’s like he is saying, you need to already see yourself where you want to be in order to achieve the goals that you envision.

He also writes the following that stood out for me,

“Your determination to succeed will be governed by how strong your why is. If you have a strong enough why, success becomes an extension of your efforts”

Reading that just encouraged me more on this pursuit of excellence that I want to explore.

After dropping my kids off at school, I made scrambled eggs and sat down with the book.
What Tom Peters speaks about is how the little things that we take for granted might make some of the biggest differences in work, life, relationships and whatever else you can think off.
There was a part in the book where he speaks on how to clean bathrooms make a big impression and how flowers make an atmosphere more lively and inviting.

These are things that we sometimes overlook, small things but things that can either take away from your excellence or add to it.

After breakfast I decided that I will start my pursuit for excellence today, of course I won’t immediately get it right and I will have to practice every day but I want to test Tom Peter’s theory for myself.

I decided I’ll start by cleaning the kitchen.
Yes, our kitchen in our home.

I washed the dishes, I packed away things that took up space, I cleaned the dustbin, washed my kids’ juice and milk bottles and I swept and mopped the floors.

I felt great afterwards, like I had achieved a level of success already and I wasn’t even at work.

I even had fun while I was doing it and I kept running the benefits through my head for why I was spring cleaning the kitchen 2 hours before work.

I thought about the dustbin for example;
I have two toddlers and they are very independent, they love doing things for themselves and one thing my son especially loves doing is throwing his own nappies away.
So when he does that, he touches the dustbin and obviously germs spread incredibly fast.
I figured if I cleaned the bin, I would lessen the risk of my children getting sick.

That’s another thing Tom writes about in the book; he speaks about how when you take note of the little things, you reduce the risk of failure and you increase your chance of success.

The kitchen now looks much better than it did before and I would have tackled the whole apartment if I didn’t have to get done for work.
That’s one small example, but because I started in my home, I feel like I want to take this energy to my workplace.

It’s all about what you choose to do, how much effort you’re willing to put in and how you’re going to think about it.
The amount of excellence you achieve is up to you.

So this is going to be my mission every morning and actually every day, I will commit to doing everything I take one with a level of excellence, care and respect.

In the end, your surroundings and the work you put out, whether you’re in corporate and working for someone else or you’re an entrepreneur or a creative or a stay-at-home parent, everything you do, is a reflection of who you are.

So even though sometimes I might not be inspired or in the mood for it, I will try and do everything with greatness and I’m sure that the more I do it, the easier it will become and this will help me reach that higher level of concentration and excellence that I am after.

I do not want to live a mediocre life and I want to leave something behind for my kids that will inspire them to also do better and reach for excellence.

-Kimberly Flanagan