If you and I have talked much about goals, motivation, and similar concepts, you know I’m a fan of Steve Magness and Brad Stulberg. Their recent newsletter addressed excellence, and I think their concepts are worth repeating here.
In my mind, excellence is not as much a result as it is a process, which is why I regularly talk about process goals rather than outcome goals. Stulberg offers ten mindsets, skills, and practices for sustaining excellence:
- Be the best at getting better
- Adopt a process over outcomes mindset
- Focus on consistency over intensity (there is no substitute for consistency!)
- Use behavioral activation (i.e., whether you feel great or terrible, just get started and see what happens)
- Respond rather than react (this reminds me of one of my favorite quotes, from Viktor Frankl)
- Compare yourself only to prior versions of yourself
- Simple does not mean easy
- Diversify your sense of self (don’t neglect the complete “you!”)
- Fierce self-discipline requires fierce self-kindness
- The people around you shape you
The entire newsletter is available here and, as with most of their content, is definitely worth reading (multiple times): https://thegrowtheq.com/10-rules-for-sustaining-excellence/
You are capable of excellence.