Marines are taught from the first day they enter the Marine Corps Recruit Depot (MCRD) to when they leave that striving for excellence is important. To rest on one’s laurels is to focus on defeat. Once one arena is conquered, it’s on to the next. Excellence is not perfection. No one can ever get to perfection.
So it is that the best are always focused and taking action towards being their best. They never settle for “just good enough.” They realize that “good enough” is for those that want the easy way. They are the ones that wait for others to pull them along. The “good enough’s” are the first to cry for help when it gets a little tough for them. So they call for the ones giving their best to help them out.
You may be better than the rest, but you are not a success until you have made the effort to become the best you can be.— John Wooden
I remember talking to John Wooden just before he was to give a speech for the Palmdale Education Foundation back in the 90s and he always made sure that each member of his UCLA basketball team worked hard to being their best. And so it was that the UCLA teams under John Wooden won 10 straight NCAA Men’s Basketball Championships. No other coach in history has matched his feat and it may never happen again.
You can be your own coach, your own drill instructor, your own motivator. Simply strive to give your best effort each and every day. When you do that, then and only then, can you say that you earned the day and and the eventual success that comes from striving for excellence.
MAKE EXCELLENCE COUNT EACH DAY!
Bob
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