We all have one way or the other come across people who are achieving or have achieved excellence in what they do. Looking at the perfection others have attained in their respective fields mostly throws the question; how come they are achieving all these excellence and yet we cannot accomplish with joy the single task we have been focused on.
For a considerable number of years, I was a great believer of the famous but deceptive adage “Jack of all trades, a master of none”. But, recently, I have been forced to revisit this belief upon realizing the excellence certain individuals areachieving in all the trades they are engaged in. As a matter of fact, I have witnessed and have had the opportunity to meet several “Jacks of all trades, masters of all”.
How come these people are able to achieve excellence in all their trades and yet, the single one we focus on turns out to always be a disaster?
The easiest approach to this fundamental puzzle is to go for “we are all different in life” and simply back it up with “all fingers are not equal”. Without putting much effort to ascertain the core “difference” mentioned above, we settle peacefully with this answer that suggest that, others can do and we cannot, simply because we are all different.
The above sounds very cool; it seems like a very reasonable and logical answer. But what we have forgotten to consider is that, excellence is not a birth mark of anyone; it is not even an act. It is a habit that must be fetched out of repetition.
Yes, we are all different and we might be doing different things, but this does not in any way stop us from achieving excellence in whatever we are doing.
What are we, what is the difference between us and the others, and how can we achieve excellence in all we do too? This question was once answered in a simple language- “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
