The Foundation of Excellence

Excellence, one of our seven core values and the theme of October, is considered the foundation for students to achieve their best “self”.

What is excellence?

Excellence is the quality of being outstanding. If you are going to achieve excellence, you develop specific habits in all the things that you do at all times. Excellence is about being the best, striving to be better, delivering and achieving the best results. People are not born with excellence. They cultivate it over some time through hard work, wise work, and smart work. It emerges from continuous improvement over the past.

Excellence differentiates extraordinary people from ordinary people. Those who strive for excellence will have longevity in their endeavors. It is both the yardstick and the benchmark. When you benchmark against other achievers, you tend to improve and grow.

Why is excellence important?

When we strive for excellence, we feel satisfied with a job well done. We learn from our mistakes and don’t let them define us. We enjoy the process, not just the outcome of our endeavors, and we remain flexible and can adjust our standards and goals as needed.

How to achieve excellence?

People first must develop the mindset that achieving excellence is a journey, not a destination. They must set their goals to achieve excellence. Certain tips will help you achieve excellence.

• Be passionate: When you do what you love, you don’t feel that you are working anymore, as you derive pleasure from it. Hence, you have to be passionate about whatever you do.
• Spot your talents: Once you know your passions, it becomes easy for you to hone them. Acquire skills and abilities in tune with talents.
• Read good books: Read good books and upgrade your knowledge constantly. Continuous learning broadens your horizons. Never become complacent with your existing knowledge. Keep reading good books that enrich you with the latest knowledge from multiple perspectives.

• Work smart and wise: You must learn to work smartly, wisely, and hard to achieve excellence. There is a difference between working hard and smart work. Working hard is all about perspiration without any planning and preparation. In contrast, working smart is about thorough preparation with a proper blueprint to proceed, along with perspiration. Hard work consumes a lot of time, money, and resources, while smart work conserves time, money, and resources.
• Share your knowledge: Knowledge grows when it is shared. Develop an attitude to help others. What we can do is share our knowledge so people can benefit.
• Solicit continuous feedback: Continuous feedback is essential for excellence. People must take feedback from others without any false ego or offense. Feedback helps people to know their weaknesses so they can work toward improvement. Continuous improvement paves the way for excellence.
• Manage constraints: There will be several constraints and obstacles in the path to achieving excellence. Some are internally created by human errors, and many are externally created by forces beyond human control. Hence, learn to manage both external and internal forces and factors that prevent you from achieving excellence.

The article is shared by Mr. Aaron Butler – the Vice Principal of the International Program.