Pep Talk • Excellence vs Mediocrity

Aids to Achievement and Success

1. Curiosity: an eagerness to explore ideas and enact events which engage the imagination and develop and apply skill(s).
2. Effective organization and discipline: hard work directed to specific goals in a timely manner results in additional positive opportunities. Success = skill meets opportunity.
3. Realistic goals—that stretch the imagination while meeting the immediate needs of the learner result in enhanced achievement and satisfying encounters.
4. Responsibility for learning: active engagement in one's studies that results in intellectual progress and artistic excellence.
5. Integrity or self respect: a confident identity based on truth and honesty which allows one to understand and respect others and achieve fairness, healthy relationships and engage others for mutual educational enrichment.
6. Self motivation: assessing one's educational situation and setting challenges for one's self; leadership. The ability to self motivate attracts likeminded individuals who value the opportunity to share ideas and experiences and the achievement of excellence.
7. Effective communication for collaboration: communicating in a mature and timely manner and applying the above principles.

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.—Aristotle 

Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.—Steve Jobs

Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek.—Mario Andretti

Obstacles to Learning and Achievement

1. Self entitlement: characterized by an over inflated sense of self importance, know-it-all-ism, closed mindedness. Often, such an attitude results in insubordination or a tendency to assume authority that does not belong to oneself, and the imposition of one's own illegitimate (and unproductive) wants over the legitimate (and productive) needs of others. The self entitled person is indifferent to the truth about his/her unproductive behaviour.
2. Inconsistent or lack of preparation: undermines progress; there is little or no foundation upon which to build.
3. Unrealistic expectations. One's goals do not reflect an honest assessment of one's current situation nor an understand of the necessary commitment needed to achieve the goals one sets
4. Unwillingness to accept direct criticism: a tendency whereby one attempts to exempt oneself from criticism and avoid confronting the truth about one's negative attitude which, because it is mediocre and defeating, typically issues forth in excuses and other unproductive behaviours, e.g., mediocre performance and low achievement. The person unwilling to accept criticism dismisses or confronts any advice as a threat.
5. Lack of confidence: may be due to a lack of objective awareness or confusion about one's strengths or weaknesses.
6. Absences: undermine one's access to information in a collaborative setting and often lead to disappointing others with whom one is supposed to be associated, e.g., in joint projects.

Mediocrity knows nothing higher than itself, but talent instantly recognizes genius.—Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

Excellence is a better teacher than mediocrity. The lessons of the ordinary are everywhere. Truly profound and original insights are to be found only in studying the exemplary.—Warren G. Bennis