Excellence is incremental

This post was brought to you by my crappy workout yesterday.

You know the kind. I didn’t want to be there.

I was tired.

Distracted.

Skipped lunch.

Did not sleep well.

Had a million things I should have been doing instead.

My head wasn’t in it and my body sure wasn’t volunteering.

You can substitute “gym” for anything.

Didn’t want to go to work? Same.

Didn’t want to do your Salesforce update? (Seriously, whoever wants to?)

Didn’t want to do dishes, laundry, clean up, thing your spouse asked you to do three times already?

We’ve all been there. To-don’t lists are easier than to-do lists, that is for sure. Motivation can be short and weak until projects are completed with pride.

While I was stretching before my workout the voice inside my head said this workout is a waste of time. We all have voices that need to be overcome so I decided to flip the script.

No, it wouldn’t be 60+ minutes of greatness. It’d be 45 minutes of intensity, no breaks, no distractions. Just intentional focus (quiet & internal) no one in the gym knew I didn't feel like working out, and no one would have cared. When I thought about coasting, I glanced at my watch and tell myself  You're almost done. It turned into a solid workout. Not because I had energy but because I chose intensity over excuse.

Here’s the hard truth:

Being average is easy, being a savage it harder.

In every job, every industry, there’s a “good enough” bar and it’s wildly overcrowded. The best people I know, The happiest, the highest performing, the ones everyone admires, They’ve all made the same decision.

Refuse to live at the baseline, Incremental change starts inside. The shine? That’s just the result of doing the inner work.

The real wins, the growth, the credibility, the success are born in the margins.

It’s not the big flashy stuff. It’s:

Spending an extra 15 minutes prepping for a client call.

Making one more follow-up when everyone else gave up.

Asking the deeper question that unlocks the real need.

Offering a solution instead of dumping a problem.

Excellence is incremental. It is the stuff no one sees, the choices you make when no one’s watching because you know it matters.

These aren’t massive overhauls. They’re 2% better here, 1% sharper there. Small, smart, intentional choices that compound over time and create a massive gap between mediocrity and mastery.

So ask yourself: What tiny edge can I sharpen today?

The line between average and excellent isn’t a mile wide. It’s a few steps, repeated consistently.

#ProfessionalDevelopment #Excellence #SuccessMindset #BeyondAverage