Favorite Inspirational Quotes

Some people have greatness thrust upon them.  Few have excellence thrust upon them - they achieve it.  They do not achieve it unwittingly by doing what comes naturally and they don’t stumble into it in the course of amusing themselves.  All excellence involves discipline and tenacity of purpose.

John William Gardner

Even those who are considered great only become excellent by hard work and dedication to their calling.  The easiest example is golf prodigy Tiger Woods.  The man is a phenom.  He is great.  But he would not be excellent, if he hadn’t worked year and year to develop his gift and fine tune it.

He put in the discipline and tenacity of purpose to be excellent.  That was very apparent, his discipline and tenacity, in his latest golf tournament when he played injured and still won.

If you want to be excellent - heck, if you just want to achieve a worthy goal - you have to get up each day and re-dedicate yourself to achieving it.  It takes work.  It takes perseverance.

You might find that you have an interest in and even a strong ability in something during your leisure time or just “unwittingly by doing what comes naturally”.  But you only find the talent, the ability.  Making it and yourself excellent takes work.

How do you re-dedicate yourself each day to that in which you wish to be excellent?  What do you do each day to become excellent?

Tags: discipline