Competition Vs Excellence!
With the examination fever all around, parents are seen to be very busy scheduling and rescheduling their activities so as to make their child study to perform well in the examinations. They complain that there is so much competition! And to see their child successful in this competition, they put pressure on the child to succeed in the examinations.What is Competition and with Whom?
Competition means entering into a contest with another person and aiming to emerge the winner. The questions that arise are: Whom does a child compete with? And why? Are studies and schooling a contest?
Excellence
Instead, it would be worthwhile to encourage the child to strive for Excellence. Excellence means improving the earlier performance and performing better and better. Excellence in studies, excellence in personal life, etc. A child should be encouraged and inspired to excel rather than compete.
A thought on some of the famous quotes gives a deeper and rich meaning to the idea of excellence.....
”Excellence is not a skill. It is an attitude.” --Ralph Marston
"The quality of a person's life is in direct proportion to their commitment to excellence, regardless of their chosen field of endeavor." --Vince Lombardi
The secret of joy in work is contained in one word - excellence. To know how to do something well is to enjoy it.” --Pearl Buck
”Excellence is an art won by training and habituation. We do not act rightly because we have virtue or excellence, but we rather have those because we have acted rightly. We are what we repeatedly do.
Excellence, then, is not an act but a habit.” --Aristotle
"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal -- a commitment to excellence -- that will enable you to attain the success you seek. “ --Mario Andretti
"Excellence is the gradual result of always striving to do better." --Pat Riley
"Excellence means when a man or woman asks of himself more than others do." --José Ortega y Gasset
”The companies that survive longest are the ones that work out what they uniquely can give to the world not just growth or money but their excellence, their respect for others, or their ability to make people happy. Some call those things a soul.” --Charles Handy
"The test of the artist does not lie in the will with which he goes to work, but in the excellence of the work he produces." --Thomas Aquinas
"Desire is the key to motivation, but it's the determination and commitment to unrelenting pursuit of your goal - a commitment to excellence - that will enable you to attain the success you seek." -- Mario Andretti
"Whatever your discipline, become a student of excellence in all things. Take every opportunity to observe people who manifest the qualities of mastery. These models of excellence will inspire you and guide you toward the fulfillment of your highest potential.” --Michael Gelb and Tony Buzan
"If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music, or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well." --Martin Luther King, Jr.
