Excellence is its Own Reward!
Oh no you’re going to say. Here he goes again blogging about golf. Well, yeah I guess I am; but I’m only using golf as a springboard to something much more important. That’s my excuse anyway and I’m sticking to it.
Lately, when I’ve been practicing golf, I’ve noticed something rather disappointing that seems to occur from time to time. People seem to look at me rather oddly and ask why I practice so much and play so little.
Well, to be perfectly honest, time and money is one big reason as a membership to the practice range is much cheaper than playing even once per month. However, there is another more important reason why I prefer to practice over playing the game. To me golf is the test and practice is the homework. You only take a test to see how you are progressing. Now, in a perfect world, I’d practice each morning and play a round of golf three or four times per week. In the real work, that’s not going to happen for a host of reasons. So I practice each day and play about once every 6 weeks.
It’s important to state that I practice golf for a more important reason than just so I can play better golf. I practice because I want to achieve excellence or at least achieve whatever level of excellence I am able to achieve. Striving for excellence is its own reward. Working hard to see how good you can be has great value and develops a love of high standards and a love of wanting to be the best you can be. It is exhilarating to work day after day and finally learn how to hit a difficult sand shot or be able to get out of a buried lie or hit a near perfect flop shot. It truly is more fun than playing the game, at least to me.
The moral of this blog is that whether practicing golf or the internet marketing business, striving for excellence should be a goal. It isn’t important whether you’re a beginner or a seasoned veteran; each person should strive for excellence at their own level. The beginner should feel proud about starting out with modest goals and achieving those goals and a veteran should seek more advanced goals. Both can achieve excellence even though at different levels. To the beginner, just learning how to start a website may be exhilarating and represent excellence; whereas the veteran should not feel as though they have achieved anything close to excellence by merely establishing a website.
It is in the striving for excellence that we find out our limits. The lower we set our standards, the more confining we set our limits. Unfortunately, I found this out late in life. However, regardless of your age it’s never too late to strive for excellence. May we all achieve excellence in our lives!
Recent Comments
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Thanks for the post John, we can never be good at something that we don't practice. I wont be surprised if you become a golf pro in the near future. All the best
Thanks for the positive thoughts, but I'm afraid that ship has sailed long ago. I'll just have to be happy with a big improvement in my game. Best to you in everything.
Good post John! I like the golf metaphor also. If you hit the ball into the trees, take a stroke, shoot a boogie, and move on to the next hole...don't let a few bad shots ruin your whole game. Strive for excellence in all that you do. All the best my friend.
David
Good post John! In keeping with the golf analogy - A number of years ago Gary Player was playing in the masters and had an unusually high number of bunker shots which he negotiated successfully each time. A lady walked up to him and said: "Mr. Player, you are the luckiest bunker player I have ever seen!" Gary looked at her and replied: "You know it is a funny thing, the more I practice the luckier I get". So there. :-)
Thanks theos. I was aware of that incident and have reminded myself of that truism many times. Today, in fact, I holed out a bunker shot. However, if I remember correctly, Gary Player had just finished holing 3 bunker shots in a row when she said how lucky he was. I've never done that, and most likely never will! Best of everything to you.
John, You sound like a man after my own heart. I strived all my life for excellence and sometimes even found it. Now retired I find excellence is there for people who know how to look for it.
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Thanks for the insight John, and keep practicing!
Thanks Shawn.