Do you want to get the most out of life? Be more successful? Become the best person you can be? Feel good about yourself?
Striving for excellence by being productive will help you move toward those goals. There’s more good news in that striving for excellence is totally within your control: you can choose to be productive!
Excellence is, “Being the best we can be.” We don’t get there by obsessing on perfection, controlling outcomes, or searching for recognition. Excellence is found when we do our best, aim for personal progress, and choose to become more productive.
Mental excellence is especially important because our mind is the control center of our personality. It houses our thoughts, and we can use our mental capabilities to deal with emotions, establish social connections, make spiritual choices, and decide what actions to take. Learning to manage our mind is a skill that helps us become more productive in our quest for excellence.
Productivity comes when we focus on effectiveness, efficiency, and effort. In other words, when we, “Work right, work smart, and work hard.” The STEPS Online Toolkit “Striving for Excellence by Being Productive” shows us how to do those things.
Striving for excellence by being productive helps us get more out of life. It moves us toward our goals and contributes to better results and more success. At the same time, it gives us a sense of contribution that increases our feelings of self-worth.
That sounds like a very good choice to make.
Productivity: Effectiveness, Efficiency, and Effort
We can become more productive by working on our effectiveness, efficiency, and effort.
Effectiveness: Being successful producing a desired result for a goal – Effectiveness is when we understand our goal and work on those things that will best achieve that purpose. We become more effective in 3 ways:
- Planning – Work on the right things.
- Preparation – Be equipped to work.
- People – Work well with others.
One of the best ways to become more effective is to focus on those things that are most important.
Efficiency: Working in an organized way without wasting time or energy – Efficiency is making progress as rapidly as possible with the least expenditure of effort and resources. We increase our efficiency when we:
- Manage our priorities – Work smart.
- Manage our time – Direct our work.
- Manage our resources – Work wisely.
That starts when we learn to manage our mind and use positive thinking to drive positive living.
Effort: Focus on what we can control, and work on the fundamentals – Effort is when we choose to get started, do our very best all the time, and keep doing the next right thing over and over. Which we do in these ways:
- Be the best we can be – Work hard all the time.
- Show personal leadership – Do our best work.
- Do whatever it takes – Work with all our heart.
In summary, focusing on effectiveness, efficiency, and effort are choices any of us can make to become more productive.
Striving for excellence by being productive is a journey, not a destination. We don’t have to figure it all out at once or try to change our lives overnight but simply focus on progress rather than perfection. We do our best each day, keep moving in a positive direction, treat mistakes as setbacks rather than failures, and take it one choice and one step at a time.
And those steps become progress which creates momentum that builds habits which shape our character and our future.
