— During the tail end of a recent nationwide race one of the female race announcers interviewed a crew chief and asked, “so, are you going to work to maintain the third place position or do you think you’ll go for a win today?”
The crew chief thought they’d push the Goodyear, Home Depot, Lipton, GameStop, 3M, Target, Verizon, NOS Energy Drink, CitiFinancial, Jimmy John’s Toyota (although the name is fictitious, you’ll never know if you read it real fast) for a first place win.
Mike scoffed. “What’s he going to say? ‘We came out here to get third?’ Isn’t the point of the race to go for the win?”
Ironically, I was reading a book for teens by Tim Baker called “Leave A Footprint — Change the Whole World.” Within the chapter, “What if Excellence Really Mattered ... would you rise to the challenge?” he shares one of his life’s regrets. He was at a local Blockbuster when he ran into a former student. He asked, “So, how has school been? Are you keeping your head above the academic water? Staying afloat?”
The student responded that his grades were pretty good except for Calc 2. “I think the prof hates me and is working hard to fail me out. Besides, I don’t need the class anyway. It’s not in my major, so I really don’t care that much.” Since the only thing that mattered to his school and future employers was his grade point average within his major, he didn’t need to do well in this class. All he really needed to do, and quite frankly cared to do, is pass.
This kid doesn’t care if he’s first, third or last. He just needs to finish the race.
Baker’s regret is that he walked this kid down the easy road, “Oh, that’s cool,” instead of helping him choose the path of excellence. He wishes he had communicated that “he should never just give up or settle for a low grade in anything. It’s important to strive and push for excellence.”
Wikipedia defines excellence as the state of possessing good qualities in an eminent degree; exalted merit; superiority in virtue. It’s a high, lofty, noteworthy and remarkable passion to give your best to whatever you do. It’s also becoming an increasingly rare commodity in our culture.
The culture has been duped into thinking that advertisements that promote fast and easy weight loss, fast and easy family meals, fast and easy money, and more, applies to their work responsibilities as well. Got a job? Choose the fast and easy track, and like Larry the Cable Guy touts, “Git-R-Done!” Doesn’t matter if it’s done with excellence. Just lowball it, git-r-done, and move on to the fun things you want to do.
I failed to find statistics on how mediocrity is impacting our schools, work force and communities, but I can tell you that for two-thirds of pigs it’s a disaster. Pretty sure it holds true for us, too. The two little pigs that went for fast and easy home construction, the one using straw and the other sticks, ended up on the losing end of their confrontation with the Big Bad Wolf. It was the one who chose the path of excellence — thoroughly and industriously going about his work brick by brick — that kept his chinny, chin, chin safe from the Big Bad Wolf’s meal plan.
Baker writes, “the more we live out excellence, the bigger difference we’ll make in the world. Your work will be changed by your commitment to excellence. Your friends will be changed. Your family, your church, your personal life ... everything will be changed.”
You don’t have to look long or hard to find places in need of change. Change doesn’t happen through mediocrity; ignoring the situation won’t dissipate it and just in case you bought into the advertising hype, there’s no fast and easy road either. Pursuing excellence is always an uphill battle, and being diligent when you face those obstacles can be difficult — especially as a child.
As our girls were growing up, we had our share of tears around the table. A bombed math test, a bad game and “I stink at ___.” If you have children, you have your own blanks to fill.
Our response to the tears always came in the form of a question. The same question that my parents asked me when I shared the same roof. “Did you do your best?”
Did you give it your best? Did you strive for excellence? Did you work to maintain the third-place position or did you go for the win? Giving our best won’t necessarily put us in victory lane, but it will bring about meaningful change and significant character growth.
Like Helen Keller wisely said, “when we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.”
Lenae Bulthuis is a wife, mom and friend who muses from her back porch on a Minnesota grain and livestock farm.
