An excellent life is within reach of everyone. It’s not for the exceptionally talented, or lucky, or rich. It’s for you. And it starts with a commitment; a commitment to live your life to the full and to maximize the abilities, talents and opportunities you have been given.

It’s a commitment that will change your life forever and impact the lives of all who are lucky enough to come into contact with you. Everyone has their own unique set of circumstances to navigate on the road to excellence. What may be considered mediocre for one might be considered brilliant  to another because of the  different set of skills, resources  and opportunities available to them.  Henry Beecher put it well when he said, “We should not judge people by their peak of excellence; but by the distance they have traveled from the point where they started.”

Here is what excellence looks like:

1. Excellence is living life to the full.

It’s being fully alive. It is realizing the potential within us and the world around us. Obviously no one can ever fully realise all the potential they have inside them, it would take several lives. Everything we do has an opportunity cost. If you choose to become a doctor you probably won’t have time to be a lawyer as well, at least not a good one, but being excellent means getting the most out of the life you choose.

2. It is uniquely you.

Excellence looks different for every person. Your fingerprints are evidence of the fact that there is no one in the world quite like you.  And we are so much more than our finger prints. You have a completely unique set of passions, desires, skills and abilities. You also have a unique set of circumstances; your upbringing, education, emotional struggles and highlights, the defining events and moments in your life. How you fashion all of these together to forge a life of excellence will be different to anyone else.

3. It’s all of you.

Your life is made up of many important elements. And to be truly excellent you need to make sure you pay enough attention to all of the important areas of your life. If you excel in one area at the expense of other important area that’s not excellence at all. It’s not sustainable and it’s damaging. If you succeed greatly in business and are named the Time Businessman of the year yet you neglect your health and family, that’s simply not excellence. If anything it’s obsession. Our lives are made up of: physical, emotional, family, work, spiritual, mental, financial, relational. Excellence means taking care of all of them well.

4. It’s not just for you.

True excellence makes the world a better place, it works on the principle of enlightened self-interest. Your excellence benefits you as well as the world around you. You make good and do good at the same time. It’s a win win.

5. It’s humble.

Not the meek and mild kind of humble but the kind of humility that is willing to be known for who you are. True humility neither understates nor overstates its worth and ability. It is willing to be fully who it is. If you are a brilliant singer it is not humble to say you are ordinary, it is humble to say yes I am brilliant and I’m very grateful for the gift.

6. Excellence is joy.

Striving and struggling and avoiding all the joys and pleasures life has to offer is not excellence, it’s deprivation.  Excellence should result in joy, the delight of being the best you can and sucking the marrow out of all that life offers. Pearl Buc put it perfectly when he said: “The secret of joy in work is contained in one word – excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it”. Olympic athlete Eric Liddell summed it up in one short sentence, “when I run I feel God’s pleasure”. One of the mistakes we all make is believing that we will be happy when we achieve what we are aiming for. Life is a journey and we must find joy in the trip. We must never defer happiness because we haven’t arrived yet.

7. Excellence is not perfection.

It is not being the best in your field, it is not necessarily even being exceptional, it is simply being the best you can be in every important area of your life. The greatest men and women in the world are not perfect. They make mistakes. We all make mistakes and fall short of the mark and it’s perfectly okay.

8. It’s Authentic.

True excellence is motivated by love not fear. It comes from living out of the core of who we are, being true to ourselves. Doing something that you don’t really want to but because society, parents or someone else wants you to is not sustainable.

Finally, excellence is achievable. You can live a life of excellence, and live it you must.  You owe it to yourself, to your loved ones and to the world which so desperately needs all you have to give. Make the commitment now.