If you consistently follow through on your promises (show up when you say you will, deliver a work product by a deadline you’ve committed to, support someone through a challenging time, exercise and eat well consistently, manage your household thoughtfully) you’re already doing more than most.

To be excellent, you need to give credence to the quality of your efforts (which is a way of acting in service to your future self) and your impact on others (the way you make people feel, anticipate their needs, and prioritize their experiences). Excellence is caring enough to give the full force of your vital energy to whatever it is you’re focusing on.

In order to care enough to be excellent, though, you must be selective in what you take on.

Too many people are operating under the false belief that they can accomplish far more than they reasonably can. They task themselves with errands they don’t actually have time to run and commit to obligations they can’t adequately show up for. Thinking you can do it all is is a fallacy that’s harmful in numerous ways, notable among them being achieving excellence.

You can’t be excellent while trying to do everything yourself. Overloading or unintentionally committing yourself means resigning yourself to a level of mediocrity.

Ironically, your ability to do things in a manner that surpasses expectations depends upon your whittling down what you’re expecting of yourself.

Ask yourself to do three dozen things perfectly and you’re bound to fail at most all of them. Ask yourself to do three things consistently and your chances of excellence in those areas increases exponentially. 

Your energy is most potent when it’s concentrated, not diluted.

Once you’ve done the work of editing down your priorities in life, you can finally begin to gain a sense of momentum. The consistency and care that you’re thereafter able to hone will pave the way for excellence that inherently self-motivates. As you see the fruits of your fullest-effort-labor you’ll become even more incentivized to strive for an overarching feeling of deep, life-wide satisfaction.