“Just do it” for Excellence

As we know, excellence is a journey and we continuously move from one level of excellence to next higher level of excellence be it personal life or professional. It is a gradual process and each person or organization goes through the same individually. One needs to regularly analyse self and decide the next steps to be taken in order to move to the next level of excellence. The world surrounding us is continuously moving forward and if we do not take these steps then we actually move backwards. This is why we need to take those actions to keep pace with the world if not outstep. It is critical that we take these actions at the earliest to see the positive results of our movement.

If we look at this in a little different angle, we see that we want to move from one level of excellence to another level of excellence; we need to change something we do or manner in which we think or way in which we approach a particular thing. When we want to change something with oneself, we need to take that first step which requires all the courage we have, we need to shed the inhibition we feel about what others will say and take that first step. 90%+ population typically lie in dilemma whether to take the action or not. This is where the famous Nike tag line “Just Do It” comes in handy. Just Do it, said very simply and effectively, telling “take that action immediately without bothering about external world”.

There is another quote by Tony Robbins “A real decision is measured by the fact that you have taken a new action. If there is no action, you haven’t truly decided”. A very apt sentence; the surrounding world actually interprets our decision and its seriousness based on what actions we take. One can find the difference between what one talks and how one acts and if these two are matching, the change takes place. As said by CG Jung, “You are what you do, not what you say you will do”.

The major reason for not taking any action preventing the improvement in our level of excellence is our fear of failure or fear of reaction of the external world. That is the reason why we need courage to take that first action. Conrad Hilton has said “Success seems to be connected with action. Successful people keep moving, they make mistakes, but they don’t quit”. We need to bring that courage out to continuously push us to act and continue to act inspite of mistakes that we might make. We need to use the mistakes to learn more and act better. There is another shloka by Shri Samartha Ramdas Swami in Marathi

Kelyane hot ahe re | Adhi kelechi pahije ||

Yatna to dev janava | Antari dharita bare ||

Which means the action will give the results we want, but first we need to perform that act. Unless that action is taken we cannot see the results. Efforts to make these actions are key and need to be continuously undertaken.

If we look at this tendency of procrastination over taking the first step and resulting stagnation at same level of excellence for a long period; this quote by John F Kennedy provides answer and necessary push to look out for action the quote reads like “There are risks and costs to every action but they are far less than the long range risks of comfortable inaction”. The mental block which protests to change and tries to keep at the comfortable zone of current surroundings will lead us to stagnate at current level of excellence and over a period of time, we will actually move backwards as the world would have moved forward. Wayne Greteki says “You miss 100% of shots you don’t take” very simple and very powerful. Unless you take action, you will not see the improvement in the level of excellence so just to ensure that there is improvement, you need to take action. It is possible that you will get success in a few actions but atleast you will see a corresponding improvement. If we do not take any action, it is guaranteed that we will not see any improvement.

So it is extremely critical to take that first step at the earliest. Keep aside all the questions raised by your mind; if you have come to conclusion after analyzing the situation that certain actions are necessary to reach the new level of excellence, then JUST TAKE THOSE ACTIONS. You may want to split these actions in to several baby steps so that you can conjure the courage to execute those. See the results and encourage yourself to take some more actions. As Lao Tzu has said, “The Journey of thousand miles begins with a single step”; in this journey of improvement in the excellence level, you will need to train your mind to continuously identify these baby steps and executing them without any pressure. I am sure that success will be yours.