How to Quit Sucking Forever: Decide to Be Excellent Instead

“If you want to achieve excellence, you can get there today. As of this second, quit doing less-than-excellent work.” – Thomas J. Watson, Born Feb. 17, 1874.

If you can't get into your writing or building your business or whatever, it might be because you aren't being excellent.

If you're being excellent, you automatically love what you're doing, it comes naturally and easily. I mean, it's excellent – how could you not love doing it?

Note, I didn't say you're working hard or spending huge amounts of time and effort. Excellence isn't about that.

Excellence is about putting in your best effort into something for its own sake. Because you care about it and want it to be good.

For example, if I get to write whatever I feel like, that makes me feel like it's excellent work. I'm interested in it. I care about it. I'm not writing for money or fame. Just love of the topic.

Ok, ok. Money and fame is a side goal…

But I am always excited to share the things you see me share because they are excellent. If I wanted to make the most possible money in my business, I could do other things.

But this is where my excellence is. This kind of writing and thinking and sharing is my best kind of output.

And even if a specific piece doesn't come out the way I hoped, the work of creating it is excellent. I put my reading and knowledge and wit and wisdom and paprika in it. A little nutmeg, too. Daily.

If today's output is meh, tomorrow's will be better. Because my workspace and workflow are excellent.

It's always excellent because I quit doing other people's work. Which is nowhere near as excellent as mine. 🙂

Not for me, anyway. Maybe your most excellent work comes from serving clients well. Maybe it comes from coding in anonymity. I can't tell you what yours is.

Find it. YOU do it.

Do only that. Every day. Until your skills are as excellent as your opinion of how fun it is to do. That is how to create some THING that ONLY YOU can do. No one does it better because no one else is you except you.

And maybe you don't know how to make it pay yet. But you can figure that out as a separate project. Excellent work is valuable. People will want it. And when you have something other people want, you can profit.

But step one is, stop sucking. Stop being mediocre. Start being excellent. Start having fun.