Excellence is a Habit

This morning there was a thunderstorm in Hong Kong. At 5am, I could see the taxi drivers driving very slowly. They never drive slowly in Hong Kong, it is the place where everything is 100mph. This circumstance forced the taxi drivers to slow down and go back to basics. In our careers we may experience times where there is a drastic change in circumstance, akin to a thunderstorm. The way we react will determine whether we survive the storm, or we succumb to it. The points below argue that the basics are always fundamental, although we notice their importance more in tough times.

Changing our strategy

At work, there are sometimes only a few chances given to you; how we react to failures can be critical. So what is the best way to react to failure or a setback? Go back to basics. Get the basics right. Do not let circumstances, emotional rollercoasters, ego dynamics, powerplays, etc distract you. Just simply go back to basics. Getting caught up in something else whilst you’re in a tough situation is very likely to take the boat further ashore. When the thunderstorm alerts went out, drivers went back down to the speed limits; often far slower in fact. They carefully signaled well in advance of turnings. They were checking their mirrors extremely diligently, and all in all, they survived. They went back to basics. When the skies are clear, it may be a different story and they go faster; when the path is clear for us in the workplace, the work you’re getting plays to your strengths, everyone co-operates nicely, there is proper recognition of efforts, and so on, certainly there is avenue to be more dynamic, however when the going gets tough, we must very quickly revert to getting the basics right.

Basics are fundamental

We can learn this example from spiritual life. Spiritual life teaches that whilst you’re in this world, you’re actually always in a very dangerous place. The potential to lose touch with our deeper identity is so much, that it is naturally a place of difficulty in that sense. Yes, there are spiritually safer places, but all in all, the principles of spiritual life teach us to keep alert. As for reverting to basics, spiritual life is founded entirely on “basics.” Chanting, reading, and associating with like minded persons are the A, B, C of spiritual life, and spiritual life teaches that never is there a stage where you are beyond these things. In fact, as one progresses, the depth at which they perform these tasks increases, not that they change their fundamental activities through advancement. The basic, building block activities become conducted with a deeper sense of realisation of their importance. This brings in the concept of being very robust. It is a basic requirement in the workplace that one must be self-organised and disciplined. We will generally find that most senior executives have a non-compromising attitude towards self-discipline. This is a core pillar of success, not only when the going gets tough, yes, this is when its need is most noticeable, but actually, to really build endured strength, such discipline over basic tasks should be there all the time.

Excellence is a habit

If we are to really take this point further, if we conduct our basics in a highly disciplined way, with no expectation of what may arise as a result, we will become even stronger. How is that? Because when we are removed from what the outcome is, there is less emotional attachment. With less emotional attachment we are less vulnerable to being disturbed from keeping the focus on performing the basics. The philosopher Aristotle famously once said that, “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” Therefore, if we focus on the basics, and get better at performing them whilst growing, we can become truly excellent.