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Apr
2
Pursuit of Excellence
Filed Under Life
There is a movie titled “Pursuit of Happiness,” chronicled a long journey of battle toward the ultimate happiness in life. With the star power, and inspiration nature of the plot and story, the movie is a box office success and ranks high on chart in terms of artistry. I don’t know whether anyone has recorded the journey in “pursuit of excellence,” which I think is a journey of its own league.
One night I observed my daughter playing with a color and number naming game. She was playing against a battery powered toy house that houses different animals in different colors, and numbers from 1 to 9. The toy machine first starts you with level 1, asking you to press the correct key for the different animal sounds; and if you get that right, you will be elevated to level 2, with two items combination, for example, an animal and a number; if you get that all right, you will be elevated to level 3, and at the end Heidi was on level 4 with a combination of an animal name, a number, a number again and an animal sound. You need to remember all the items, and start to press the right key one by one to match the request. It was late in the evening, getting close to bedtime. Heidi got most of the items right with a few missing at level 4. To wrap up the day, I said: “Heidi, you are doing a very good job, let’s play that tomorrow.” She shook her head, feeling unhappy, “No, I didn’t do good. I am tired. I will get all right tomorrow, morning.”
I was astonished and at the same time very proud of her to see her persistency to get it right and her unsatisfaction toward mediocre. Though happy as I am, I also realize that the “pursuit of excellence” has the high price to pay. It takes hard work and preparations, attention to details, perseverance, and a conquering spirit toward the objections in the road toward excellence. Satisfied with status quo, your environment and surroundings may avoid changes or improvements that lead to excellence. It is even a harder journey against one self, since the natural tendency of one self is to become satisfied after a while. The “pursuit of excellence” will mean the journey to challenge one self to go above what you can reach, again, and again, and again; and keep saying to yourself “I am not finished yet” until your last breath. It is a road less traveled, sometimes accompanying with a sense of loneliness.
However, for those of us who are committed to this journey, the “pursuit of excellence” becomes part of who we are, and the rewards lie in the ultimate truth to ourselves, and the ultimate hope that we will never give up.