Excellence is not perfection but rather a continual striving to be better than what you define as best - today. 

If you think that you are doing the best you can do, or being the best you can be, then you are headed for a decline. Imagining that you have reached your best prepares you for a journey toward mediocrity and possibly even stagnation.    

Let's look for "better practice" rather than "best practice."  Everyone involved will benefit. 

Almost every running expert agrees that overstriding is not good for you.

The theory of overstriding is that when walking  (or running), if you place your front foot too far in front of your center you slam your foot down, decreasing your efficiency and increasing your risk of injury.

Makes sense.

In the same way, as you pursue your dream, speed is important and so is strategy.

Seek to understand risk as you thoughtfully consider the reach for your next forward step.

Mahatma Gandhi once said, "I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet."

Might he have been contemplating that clean feet represent ideas that are ….

              Cared for consistently

              Inspected for any type of contamination

              Protected by shoes until the right time for barefoot learning

              Soaked in warm waters with old skin cells being sloughed off

We all know that once an idea enters our mind it wants to stay and grow. Wouldn’t’ you rather have “clean feet” walking through your mind?” Gandhi did!

You open an invitation and read, “Your presence is requested…”

Presence.

An intentional way not just of doing but of being so that when your presence is requested you are not only arriving with your physical body but your mind and your spirit. 

When body, mind and spirit are all engaged then the significance of your presence goes far beyond the expectations of those who invited you to join them. 

Evidence-based researcher and author, Jody Gittell, shares in her book Transforming Relationships for High Performance that “Without relationships, worker skills and knowledge are like disconnected icebergs of expertise floating in the sea.” (p. 123)

A question to ask ourselves: 

Would I rather be an iceberg floating along in my silo of excellence where only 10% of what I am doing can be seen by others....

OR

Would I rather be a part of a glacier, entirely above water level; a part of the whole; seeking to build meaningful relationships that I know will take time and energy.  

Do you find yourself thinking that you are the centerpiece?

You are a piece...  

     important but not absolutely critical

     a connector but not the only connector

     a building block but only one segment of the infrastructure

If you want to be a part of something that is bigger than yourself you have to change your perception that you are the centerfold.  The new perspective will be worth it - I promise. 

"Haba na haba hujaza kibaba" is a Swahili proverb I grew up hearing. It means drop by drop the bucket fills. 

Is there something you have been meaning to do but putting it off?

Why not pause after reading this and take a micro step towards what it is that you have been meaning to get to.  We can accomplish so much by starting.  A little goes a long way when it is the first step in a new direction.