W.I.N. Wednesday: Excellence is mundane.

"Excellence is mundane. Superlative performance is really a confluence of dozens of small skills or activities, each one learned or stumbled upon, which have been carefully drilled into habit and then are fitted together in a synthesized whole. There is nothing extraordinary or superhuman in any one of those actions; only the fact that they are done consistently and correctly, and all together, produce excellence.”

Daniel Chambliss PhD, The Mundanity of Excellence

The above excerpt is from a paper Chambliss published in 1989 titled “The Mundanity of Excellence: An Ethnographic Report on Stratification and Olympic Swimmers”. While the focus of the paper is on swimmers Chambliss, does reference other arenas of performance and the core insights can be broadly applied.

The message to all of us is that the pursuit of excellence in any endeavour is about showing up every day and doing the work. Being consistent with the putting the effort into the small, seemingly insignificant steps that add up over time like compound interest. There are no hacks, secrets, or shortcuts. The work is not sexy, but it is necessary. Steven Pressfield wrote about this in The War of Art, Do the Work and in much of his other non-fiction writing.  

We too often get enamoured with the performance and miss all the years of training, practice and hard work that went before the performance. We like to talk about the best performers being a “natural” in their sport or arena of performance. We like to credit genetics. While genetics may help guide people to a specific sport or position within a sport, genetics without years of consistent hard work and practice will not allow you to become a world class performer.

This is not a discussion about theories of learning, teaching, and coaching or pedagogical models. Yes, great coaches can make practices fun and challenging. But you must consistently show up to practice, put in the effort and do the work. And you must do that over a long period of time if you want to be excellent. This applies to athletics, writing, music, speaking, teaching, sales, leading or any other arena of performance. You must continually and consistently invest in improving your mind, body, and craft.

What’s Important Now? Embrace the mundanity of excellence.

Take care.

Brian Willis

www.lifesmostpowerfulquestion.com

ONE QUESTION BRINGING FOCUS AND CLARITY IN THE CHAOS AND COMPLEXITY OF TODAY'S WORLD.

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