Commit to Excellence

Excellence in Action

Some virtues like integrity or honor can at times feel intangible, felt only faintly when we come in contact with someone who “just has it.” But, not excellence. Excellence is acute in its appearance. We’ve all seen it, either while walking down the street and looking up at a beautiful work of art or by reading about the latest tech company that hit unicorn status. We’ve all felt it, from the day when we received our first A+ on a test or a promotion at a job.

Trust the process

Trust the process. It’s a phrase that has become so prevalent with the rise(and fall) of the Philadelphia 76ers that it now borders on evoking immediate laughter once someone mentions it. If you’re not familiar with the 76ers process, it was simply this: tank — or lose purposefully — as many games as possible over the course of three years to acquire top talent through the draft and ultimately become really good in a short amount of time. From 2013–2016, the 76ers went 47–199, embarrassing themselves under the guise of a process.

Making the playoffs the last two years led many commentators to believe that the process was working. I knew this was always the fool’s gold that comes when you prioritize the short term over the long term. The results of good habits are never felt immediately. I also knew their experiment wouldn’t work because I knew that what the 76ers were doing wasn’t trusting the process but rather cheating the process it takes to be excellent. The true process it takes to become excellent isn’t about outcomes but rather it’s about input. Excellence isn’t found in the team that bets their entire future on getting three picks perfect. Excellence is found in the team that focuses on getting one percent better daily.

As Will Durant put it, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” To put this in everyday terms, the promotion you received had nothing to do with what you did the day you asked for one, but instead the way you showed up with a commitment to excellence every day up until that point.

Black at Sprout

In life, it’s easy to focus on the epic, single-day events that drive news stories and seduce you into overlooking the lifetime of work involved in creating true, consistent acts of excellence. Those who have never achieved lasting excellence will convince you that you can paint the Mona Lisa without hours of practice. At Black at Sprout, we know better. We know that to be truly excellent, we must commit to building the habit of excellence. The one where it builds upon itself, inspires others to become excellent, and shows up and shows out every single day.

Black@Sprout—Product Design Thinking Workshop

Four ways to be excellent in your daily life

1. Set stretch goals/standards for yourself: The foundation of achieving excellence in anything is growing intentionally, goal setting, and perseverance. When you’re setting goals, make sure they’re just enough out of your comfort zone that you have to acquire new skills to achieve them but not so much past your current skill set that you become discouraged.
2. Prioritize long term growth over short term: Short term thinking leads to short term risks and long term instability and stagnation. The 76ers are a perfect example of this. Another example is someone who plays the lottery every day. They may win a couple of dollars every so often but in the long run, that same person could have built wealth through investing a little over a long period.
3. Audit your habits: Remember, you are what you repeatedly do. Anyone can be great for a day, but doing it repeatedly especially when things get tough is what leads to excellence. So, take a long look at the habits you undertake daily, are they leading you closer to a life of excellence? If not, remove them and replace them with ones that get you closer to your goals.
4. Create feedback loops: A loss is only a loss if you fail to learn from it. Feedback loops are important because they allow you to take risks + try out new ideas and strategies knowing that you’ll be better in the end for doing so. So, find a group, or maybe a single mentor, that’s invested enough in you to provide you with feedback throughout your career. You’ll then be able to use this feedback to consistently fine-tune your skills on the road to excellence.

Click to read about the rest of our Black@ Sprout Social Leadership Principles.