{"id":864,"date":"2008-11-06T10:00:30","date_gmt":"2008-11-06T17:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/06\/personal-excellence-comes-first\/"},"modified":"2018-04-04T02:58:32","modified_gmt":"2018-04-04T09:58:32","slug":"personal-excellence-comes-first","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/06\/personal-excellence-comes-first\/","title":{"rendered":"Personal Excellence Comes First"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Meditate.jpg\"<\/a><\/p>\n

In his book, Stephen Covey split the seven habits of highly effective people<\/a>\"\"<\/strong> into two categories: personal and interpersonal habits.\u00c2\u00a0 He felt that the personal skills came first.\u00c2\u00a0 Communicating goals with another person isn\u2019t useful unless you have the discipline to act on those goals.\u00c2\u00a0 Personal excellence comes first.<\/p>\n

I think this a point that is too often understated.\u00c2\u00a0 Many people try to tackle the branches of problems (relationships with friends, financial success, etc.) without looking at the personal skills that make the root.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don\u2019t have mastery over yourself, how can you expect to succeed in mastering anything else?<\/p>\n

What is Personal Excellence?<\/h2>\n

Personal excellence isn\u2019t just one skill.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s all the mental resources that go together to help you handle problems.\u00c2\u00a0 Here are a few questions you can use to measure yourself:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • Do you procrastinate?<\/li>\n
  • When you make a commitment, do you stick with it?<\/li>\n
  • How hard is it to motivate yourself?<\/li>\n
  • Could you give up something you enjoy for one month?<\/li>\n
  • Could you give up something permanently if it conflicted with your goals?<\/li>\n
  • Could you halve your spending if forced to?<\/li>\n
  • Are you able to do what is most important first?<\/li>\n
  • Does your emotional state frequently prevent you from getting work done?<\/li>\n
  • Can you handle stress?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    Personal excellence is extremely important to me because I feel it reflects on everything I try to do.\u00c2\u00a0 If I\u2019m weak with a personal skill, any other goal will be difficult to tackle.\u00c2\u00a0 External problems can usually be avoided by someone with personal excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 But almost nothing can be done if you aren\u2019t in control of yourself.<\/p>\n

    I once heard that most lottery winners have spent the entirety of their winnings in five years.\u00c2\u00a0 I think this proves that wealth isn\u2019t about money: it\u2019s about personal excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 Unless you’ve built wealth on the inside, any money you find will probably slip through your fingers.<\/p>\n

    Dimensions of Personal Excellence<\/h2>\n

    I try to always be pushing myself in at least one dimension of personal excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s like a muscle, so if I\u2019m not improving, I\u2019m probably growing weak.<\/p>\n

    Discipline<\/h2>\n

    Discipline is at the core of personal excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 About half of the questions I asked at the beginning of this article are rooted in discipline.\u00c2\u00a0 If you don\u2019t know how to push yourself through temporary discomfort, you\u2019ll be derailed every time there is a bump in the road.<\/p>\n

    The best way to improve discipline is to face difficult, but manageable, situations.\u00c2\u00a0 Exercising is a good way to push your discipline levels up.\u00c2\u00a0 Thirty day trials are also a good test of your self discipline.\u00c2\u00a0 I know I\u2019m letting this dimension weaken if I have trouble getting through thirty consecutive days of a new habit.<\/p>\n

    Discipline is important for personal excellence, but it should be the last skill to use, not the first.\u00c2\u00a0 If you\u2019re constantly having to drag yourself to do everything, you won\u2019t last long.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u2019s why it\u2019s important to build the other aspects of personal skill.<\/p>\n

    Emotional Control<\/h2>\n

    Emotional control does not mean you should strive to be stoic and unfeeling.\u00c2\u00a0 Strong emotions are important for personal excellence too.\u00c2\u00a0 Being able to motivate yourself and build enthusiasm are components of emotional control.<\/p>\n

    Emotional control comes in two aspects: self-awareness of what emotional state is appropriate and the ability to change that state.\u00c2\u00a0 Building emotional control starts with building self-awareness.\u00c2\u00a0 Realize when you\u2019re lazy, angry, energetic or depressed and ask yourself whether it\u2019s the best perspective for dealing with a problem.<\/p>\n

    Once you have self-awareness, you can find the triggers you need to change your state.\u00c2\u00a0 People change moods all the time, you just need to realize what causes you to change states and activate it when you need it.\u00c2\u00a0 When I\u2019m trying to motivate myself, a big help is being organized.\u00c2\u00a0 Decluttering is a tool I use to motivate myself to do other things.<\/p>\n

    Attitude<\/h2>\n

    A positive attitude does not mean you think things are going great all the time.\u00c2\u00a0 That\u2019s being stupid.\u00c2\u00a0 When things are going poorly, you need to be able to recognize and fix what\u2019s happening immediately.<\/p>\n

    A positive attitude, in the realm of personal excellence, means that you don\u2019t let negative information shut you down.\u00c2\u00a0 Someone with a positive attitude can take verbal abuse from someone, and turn it into fuel for improvement.\u00c2\u00a0 Alchemy is the heart of a great attitude, being able to transmute the negative feedback from your environment into new solutions.<\/p>\n

    Courage<\/h2>\n

    Fear is your friend.\u00c2\u00a0 Fear tells you to work when others are lazy.\u00c2\u00a0 Fear tells you secure yourself when others are gambling.\u00c2\u00a0 The first way to overcome your fears is to realize they serve a very good purpose in focusing you.<\/p>\n

    Courage, of course, isn\u2019t the lack of fear.\u00c2\u00a0 It\u2019s being able to realize your terrified but stand up anyways.\u00c2\u00a0 People with personal excellence know how to make their fears work for them.\u00c2\u00a0 Fear can be a powerful motivating force if you know how to channel it, and are able to override it when necessary.<\/p>\n

    Calmness<\/h2>\n

    The best sign of personal excellence is that a person has grace when handling problems.\u00c2\u00a0 If regular stresses cause a nervous breakdown, you don\u2019t have personal excellence.\u00c2\u00a0 The scaffolding that supports your inner mental life, should be strong enough that when a hurricane comes through it, you don\u2019t collapse.<\/p>\n

    I\u2019ve found that knowing what to focus on in situations makes a big difference to your mental calmness.\u00c2\u00a0 Stress usually results, not from the actual workload or pressures (although exhaustion can happen), but from the way you focus on that information.\u00c2\u00a0 A huge to-do list can be handled one item at a time, not as an impossible mountain of tasks.<\/p>\n

    Building Personal Excellence First<\/h2>\n

    Trying to fix external problems without building personal excellence is like putting a band-aid over a leaky pipe.\u00c2\u00a0 You might stop the water for a few minutes, but you\u2019ve only masked the real problem.<\/p>\n

    Personal excellence is similar to athletic training.\u00c2\u00a0 Although you might get some conditioning just by playing the game, the best athletes practice.\u00c2\u00a0 Here are some ways to start building personal excellence:<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Get in shape<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 If you aren\u2019t already eating healthy and exercising, start.\u00c2\u00a0 The problem isn\u2019t having enough time, it\u2019s having enough discipline.<\/li>\n
    2. Give up television<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Switch to entertainment that requires more effort, and read a book instead of watching reruns.\u00c2\u00a0 There is value in books, and there is also value in doing something more difficult, but more rewarding.<\/li>\n
    3. Wake up earlier<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Yes, I like to sleep in too.\u00c2\u00a0 But every day you can push yourself to wake up earlier, you earn more control to do other things that are important to you.<\/li>\n
    4. Speak in public<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Get booed a few times too.\u00c2\u00a0 A good test of personal excellence is to be able to swallow the unfiltered, face-to-face reactions of a few dozen people and still keep going.<\/li>\n
    5. Follow a budget<\/strong>.\u00c2\u00a0 Try cutting your spending for a month, and following a strict budget.\u00c2\u00a0 The exercise isn\u2019t just to save money, it\u2019s to test yourself to see the limits of what you\u2019re able to do.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      You\u2019re square one.\u00c2\u00a0 If you start there, the rest is easy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      In his book, Stephen Covey split the seven habits of highly effective people into two categories: personal and interpersonal habits.\u00c2\u00a0 He felt that the personal skills came first.\u00c2\u00a0 Communicating goals with another person isn\u2019t useful unless you have the discipline to act on those goals.\u00c2\u00a0 Personal excellence comes first. I think this a point that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[9,12,679],"tags":[245,669,671,23,25,243,244],"class_list":{"0":"post-864","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-courage","7":"category-discipline","8":"category-nc-habits","9":"tag-calmness","10":"tag-courage","11":"tag-discipline","12":"tag-emotions","13":"tag-motivation","14":"tag-personal-excellence","15":"tag-personal-skills","16":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nPersonal Excellence Comes First - Scott H Young<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.scotthyoung.com\/blog\/2008\/11\/06\/personal-excellence-comes-first\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Personal Excellence Comes First - Scott H Young\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In his book, Stephen Covey split the seven habits of highly effective people into two categories: personal and interpersonal habits.\u00c2\u00a0 He felt that the personal skills came first.\u00c2\u00a0 Communicating goals with another person isn\u2019t useful unless you have the discipline to act on those goals.\u00c2\u00a0 Personal excellence comes first. 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