“Whatever You Are Doing, Be Excellent”
Over the weekend I had the opportunity to attend the “Saskatoon Chef’s Gala”. It is a formal event consisting of a seven course dinner; each course being prepared by a different world renowned chef from the Saskatoon area. I must admit this was entirely new to me. The only chef I was really familiar with is a little fella’ named “Boyardee”. It was so cool to be a part of a showcase and be able to see; in this case, “taste” the end results of people working at the highest level in their field. People who are excellent.
Being exposed to people working at that high skill level was encouraging. “Cheffing” is something I had quite frankly never thought or appreciated on a high level. Just the same as football has the Super Bowl or hockey has the Stanley Cup, there are also those “championship” events for nearly everything human beings do. Be it the “world championships” in a spelling bee. World championships of bar tending. World championships of race car driving. They are all examples of people in their field performing at the highest level.
When we think about those “world class” performances, our minds often go to the “shiny things” that have the societal glamour with them. While there is glamour and recognition within the given field at the highest level, often society never gives it a second thought. I think that regardless of what we are pursuing, do it with excellence. Your profession, relationships, fitness; all of it.
Within your time at 306, dedicate yourself to being excellent. This absolutely does not mean putting up the fastest time of the day on the whiteboard. What this does mean is giving your full effort on each work out. On each rep even! We aren’t always going to be 100%, but no matter what kind of output we are capable of, we are 100% capable of putting in 100% effort. We had a blog in December entitled “Move With Purpose” and this echos that idea. In today’s workout of “Elizabeth” for example (21-15-9; squat cleans and ring dips), make each rep of the squat clean be tight, set up and purposeful instead of just yanking the weight from the floor because it feels light and we can move it fast. It doesn’t matter where we are in our fitness, we are going to get better and it will feel far more rewarding if we are practising every day with excellence.
I have a great appreciation and tremendous respect for anyone who is being excellent. Whether it be the person pumping my gas at the gas station, the person who cleans the floors, or the person running the company. Take pride in what you do. Do it with excellence so that you can be proud of the outcome.
Have an “excellent” day!