Striving for Excellence

What a busy three days I have had~! Friday was enrichment classes; I substituted third hour for someone who had to be out so it was three hours of nonstop service. With school, errands, and classes it was a blessing to have Ben cook his delicious hamburgers for dinner. I am so grateful to Joseph for getting Ben interested in grilling~!

Saturday we spent 5 hours trying to find a new satellite signal to continue receiving our HomeSat classes. Their provider moved their signal; thus we had to reposition our satellite to pick up the new signal. I don't even like to think about doing that, much less actually be in the middle of it. Tension and frustration seem to sum it up, along with a few tears on my part. Thankfully this is the first time in over eight years we've had to do that so I guess we're doing pretty good.

Yesterday was another great Sunday. Pastor Paul spoke on excellence. Now almost immediately my semi-reformed perfectionist self thought about perfection. That is NOT what excellence is.

He had quotes on excellence and this one really helped me understand what he was saying:
"I am careful not to confuse excellence with perfection. Excellence, I can reach for; perfection is God's business." Michael J. Fox

"Excellence is doing ordinary things extraordinarily well." --- John W. Gardner

Now since I spend my life doing ordinary things this one really spoke to me. I am convinced I need to take this to heart and put it into practice. Doing a little research of my own I found this quote by Aristotle: "With regard to excellence, it is not enough to know, but we must try to have and use it."

Now I like to do my best usually, but for some reason I have let a lot of things slip and am becoming mediocre in so many things. I have lots of reasons I can use to excuse this; however I am convinced my cobwebs have to go~! I actually just look at them now instead of taking care of them. "Oh well" has become one of my favorite sayings the past few years.

As a semi-reformed perfectionist I seem to have swung too far the other direction. Finding the balance in things has always been hard for me. However I do know I need to strive for excellence. I'm not quite sure when the cobwebs will be taken care of, but at least I have a goal.