Demystifying Excellence:
My Compass
So that's the background story. Here are the core lessons I learned from it.
Nowadays, the philosophical "call to action" moments of my teens are far behind me. My life has become blissfully comfortable for long stretches. This presents new challenges. There are times when I have to remind myself that it's my responsibility to continue to seek excellence and meaning beyond personal comfort. This is one of the reasons why I -- and many other teachers and children's entertainers -- have chosen my career path. Kids are more important than I am; I realize that. Adults are, as Dr. Seuss famously quipped, merely "obsolete children." Whatever personal obstacles I need to overcome that day, it's still relatively easy to get up and get motivated when it's my job to go do something for people who really matter -- kids. Still, I ponder the following questions a lot observing my life and the lives of those around me:
What is it that makes a person strive for excellence in any situation? And how do we sustain excellence in times when life hasn't just knocked us down, put our souls on red alert, and dared or required us to get up, give our all, and do our best?
For me, it's a combination of combining an inspirational catalyst, an inner drive, and a peer community that supports you and inspires you to go for it. If I can provide that inspirational moment for anyone, I will feel like a contributing member of society and be a success that day. That's why I became a teacher, that's why I became a parent, and that's why I became Doctor Noize. And it all goes back to that horrible, undesirable catalyst that was served up to me in my teens.
An unexpected thing happened after my family's series of tragedies: I felt a sense of inner peace. I felt that, as a consolation prize to all the pain, the gift of perspective had been bestowed upon me. My direction in life became simple and clear. I wanted to dedicate my time and passion to the things that interested me most, every day. And I wanted to do them excellently.
So I asked myself: Why am I not working toward all these things every day already? I named this address Demystifying Excellence because -- in a cruel trick by God, or Nature, or The Tooth Fairy, or the Twilight movies, or whatever happens to govern your belief system -- we all seem to be hardwired to fear or avoid the quest for excellence.
We worry: What if we fail? What if we put ourselves on the line and fall flat on our face? Isn't it easier to strive for less and minimize the risk? The answer: No, in the long run, it's harder on you to take the easy route. Why? Because when you're older, and you look back on your life, you won't be too disappointed about the girl who turned you down. But you'll always wonder, with regret, about the girl you never asked. And the same holds true for anything you truly care about.
So why this fear of striving for excellence, and how do we overcome it? It dawned on me at the age of sixteen that three things prevented people from achieving excellence in their lives, and that conquering these three things was the key to sustaining a life of fulfillment. I call these my three little insights.
Insight #1: Identify a small and manageable number of core areas which you care most passionately about.
Insight #2: Devote your time to these areas every day.
Insight #3: Be confident all the time.
Read the next Chapter -> Insight #1 -- Identify Your Cornerstones.
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