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Don't Aspire to Excellence

growth work Jul 16, 2019

Excellence isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I spent a significant portion of my life in the pursuit of excellence and I wish I knew then what I know now. Excellence isn’t bad. But there’s something better.

I spent much of my early career in the pursuit of excellence. I was intensely focused on the quality of my work. If it wasn’t perfect, it better be really close and there’d better be a good reason it wasn’t. Results mattered. Nothing else.

That doesn't sound too bad, right? Like I said, excellence isn’t bad. It's just not perfect. Allow me to explain...

Back in the day, I used to play a lot of golf. It was a great way to unwind from the stress of the long hours I was spending in the office. I was a decent golfer. At my best, my handicap got down to about 13. I regularly broke 90 and occasionally shot in the low 80s. Not bad, by most people's standards.

I was pretty good, but I was never going to get better. Why not?

When it came to golf, I was more committed to excellence than to mastery.

What’s the difference between mastery and excellence?

Excellence is something that you are already good at. When you are doing this thing, you are solidly in your comfort zone. You may face challenges, but they are temporary and circumstantial in nature. The real growth and learning is already done. You’re focused on results.

Mastery, on the other hand, is not about results. It’s about the pursuit. It’s about personal growth and development. Mastery is a life-long journey of learning. In the end, mastery leads to excellence, but you arrive at the destination with so much more.

The problem with mastery, and the reason why so few people pursue it, is that mastery is hard. It takes a long, long time. Not only that, mastery requires you to go backwards in order to move forwards. The path to mastery often requires you to forget what you know so that you can learn a better way.

In my golf analogy, mastery would have required me to break down my swing and rebuild it from scratch. During this rebuilding phase my scores would have regressed back to the level of a beginner. My buddies who were not rebuilding their swings would suddenly start beating me instead of me beating them.

Mastery would have required me to sacrifice excellence. I wasn’t willing to do that.

Do I regret not pursuing golf mastery?

No. At least not as it relates to my golf game. I couldn’t care less about my handicap. On a personal level, I do wonder who I would be had I pursued golf mastery. You see, the real gift of mastery is in the personal transformation that occurs during the pursuit.

The road to mastery is long. It requires discipline to travel. It takes courage. Patience. From time to time, the pursuit of mastery requires you to surrender your ego. In the end, mastery isn’t about getting better, it’s about becoming better.

In the video portion, we’ll explore how to apply the concept of mastery to your own life, wherever you may be in life.

For now, I’ll leave you with this question…

Are you pursuing excellence or are you pursuing mastery?

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Worthwhile Reads:

Mastery. They Keys to Long Term Success and Fulfillment, by George Leonard.

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Photocredit: https://pixabay.com/users/pexels-2286921/

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