Excellence – can it be achieved?

I have over the past few months read a number of articles, website, books and Blog Post about Athletic Excellence.  Don’t believe me, just Google the term Athletic Excellence.  Much like the infomercials that occupy my sleepless nights – I read with anticipation – with hopes of learning what I missed for myself and my clients.  The Measure of Excellence always starts with a brief biographical note about elite individuals, and generally ends with the moral being that hard work and perseverance lead to victory.  By the way, there is no secret, no magic pill or the like.

Having re-ignited my educative process, I have found myself in a Masters Program on the Philosophy of Education.   Similar to teaching is coaching; I found this a natural tract for my interests.  I was forced to re-read a chapter from Bill Readings, The University in Ruins, as it was entitled “The Idea of Excellence.”

Corporate America, has attached excellence to each and every possible thing we use and see.  We will only buy cars, with a certain JD Power Ranking.  Any of you who have worked for a company of more that 200 people have likely received some award as a measure of excellence.  I have seen that at health clubs where the employee of the month is attached not to whose clients had the best results or retention, but on who had the most sales.

Readings teaches (or questions us) the “excellence is not a fixed standard of judgment but a qualifier whose meaning is fixed in relation to something else.  An excellent boat is not excellent by the same criteria as an excellent plane.  So to say that excellence is a criterion is to say absolutely nothing other than that the committee will not reveal the criteria used to judge applications.” Readings at 25.  I even like to think that what properties make a tug boat or barge excellent are not those which make a racing sail boat excellent.

What Readings goes on to tell us, as I understand, is that excellence is in each and every one of us.  But we have our own levels of “achievement” and progress toward that, by which it must be based.  He says this in a much more critical manner as it relates to education.  Essentially excellence is meaningless.  Can one not be excellent at almost anything?  If so, why achieve?

This is my long winded way of saying there is more than one way to the top of the mountain, and what works for one might not work for another.  Because a pro racer rides 400 miles a week, doesn’t mean you need to,  and riding that does not mean you will have a comparable performance.  Your excellence is based solely on you and your  personal standards.  Think about it, could we as triathletes, not all be excellent?  If there is an award for excellence in triathlon, could one not argue that a first timer who overcame x,y and z, is just as deserving as the world champion winner?

Be ready willing and able to explore and try new methods, and question their veracity.  Question, why, that shows excellence in decision making.  Take a look at what your goals are and if they can be achieved.  Excellence in the mind of a pro athlete is very different from an age grouper – who is a surgeon – with three children.- or the parent of a child with a disability.

Do not let words scare or limit you, as Excellence is something internal and personal, and it serves nothing other than itself.  You can achieve your own excellence without 30 hours a week to train.  In fact to friend and co-workers that fact that you train at all, shows a sense of Excellence.

So yes we can all achieve excellence, if we believe there is such a thing.  You set the paramaters, though and no one else.  It may be by a standard different from the person who sits next to you – but that matters not, this journey, this  race – is only against yourself.  But do not let the  movement toward excellence be your sole motivating factor – as you are likely to compare yourself by someone elses standards of excellence and thus set yourself up for failure.