I had a band director in high school who used to say that he wanted us to get from ‘good’ to ‘great.’ And then, towards the end of the year, he would start saying that the real test was to get from ‘great’ to ‘excellent.’

I think, for whatever reason, I’ve always tried to do things with excellence. Perhaps it’s because of my band director, or perhaps its because I grew up with workaholic, over-achieving parents who couldn’t sit still for long than an hour or two before worrying that they weren’t being productive enough. Now, I’ve also got a boss who talks about how one of her core values is ‘excellence.’ So I’ve been thinking a lot about what excellence means for me and what I’m trying to do.

I think it’s become a bit of a double-edged sword for me. When it comes to my day job, I think it serves me–there are so many things I want to do, but if I want to do things with excellence, I have to scale back. That’s good. I think with my writing, that excellence holds me back–I get so focused on making everything perfect that I end up paralyzed.

This whole blog, actually, is an exercise in breaking some of that ‘excellence.’ This is not perfect, or ground-breaking, but it helps me to do it, so that’s what I’m doing. Up to you whether it’s up to snuff, I suppose.

Love and gratitude, as always.

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