“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it over?” – John Wooden
Allow me to ask you a question: when you have a project to do, is your desire to do it with excellence or to get it done? If you are like most of us, the answer is both. As a Success-Minded Person you desire to do all things with excellence and have something to be proud of in the end. But many times even Success-Minded People have a lot on their plate and they struggle for time and have deadlines to meet. No matter how badly you want excellence, the demands of the urgent yell at you just to get it done. We understand Robert James Waller when he said, “Remember the great adversity of art or anything else is a hurried life.”
Many Success-Minded People have discovered that it really takes less time to do something with excellence than it does to get it done. When we work for excellence we do not have to do it over, go back to correct mistakes or find that it will not work in the end. There must be a change in our thinking to pursue excellence. We can no longer think of completing a task but of making something worthwhile. There is a constant striving to be better and to do better – to achieve excellence. Author Edwin Louis Cole said “Mediocre men work at their best; men seeking excellence strive to do better.”
Success-Minded People need to approach their work with the attitude that it must be done right the first time. When excellence is the standard you hold for yourself you will not be pressured into a bad job just to save a few moments of time. Others may not understand this, but Success-Minded People are always the example. Apple Founder Steve Jobs said, “Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren’t use to an environment where excellence is expected.” You will be amazed that when you hold yourself to a higher standard how others will fall into the same line.
Another discovery you will make is that excellence does not take that much more time. Again, when you do not have to go back and do it over, one time is less than two. It also does not take a lot more skill. As John W. Gardner said, “Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well.” If you pay attention to details, do not cut corners and always find a better way, you will always have excellence in your work.
Time is the one unchangeable in life. You get no more than anyone else and you have no less. It is what you do with time that matters. When you use it for excellence you will see that it is well spent and in the end will reward you with a good life. Don’t be the victim of time, be the master. As humorist Will Rogers once said, “Half our life is spent trying to find something to do with the time we have rushed through life trying to save.”
© 2012 John Patrick Hickey
