I’ve mentioned before that one of the reasons why I started this blog was to help people interested in living lives of excellence to do just that, in a more effective way. Since there are so many personal development, self-improvement, etc materials out there in the form of books, audio programs, blogs, seminars, workshops, blah blah blah – it can be really easy to drown yourself in the ocean of choices. Or you may become afflicted with the infamous paralysis of analysis just trying to figure out which ones are better than others, and which ones you should get, and what order you should go through them and everything else. Wouldn’t it be easier if you just had a simple process to follow? How about 10 steps to excellence?
Well I’m here to put an end to the confusion by offering you 10 steps to excellence!
I’ve already done that. I’ve wandered around Barnes & Noble and dozens of other stores reading the backs of books, looking for best sellers and testimonies from people I already knew about and liked, and flipping through the books that had cool looking covers that caught my eye. And I’ll spare you the details of all of the blogs, audio programs, workshops and everything else I’ve looked at and gone through. Suffice it to say – it’s been a lot, and I wasted a lot of time and didn’t get as much out of many of them (the first time) as I could have if I would have had a more effective strategy.
The good news is that I’ve determined a great strategy that you can use so you can be much more effective in your quest for excellence! So without further ado, here my:
10 Steps to Excellence
- Evaluate where you are in your life compared to where you want to be.
- Determine what your values are and what priority they should be in for you to live the type of life you want to live.
- Create goals that are aligned with your values.
- Identify what parts of yourself you need to improve in order to reach those goals.
- Whichever ones you need to work on the most, that’s where you should start in terms of self development.
- Get recommendations from trusted sources on what materials on that subject are good.
- Pick one, and start going through it!
- Then pick at least one more to go through as well (three or more is ideal).
- As you continue striving to reach your goals, move on to then next area that you need to improve on the most.
- Rinse and repeat!
That’s the basic process. It seems simple, but it really is the most effective method of self-improvement and personal development I know of. You will always be working on improving something about yourself that will help you reach a goal that is important to you because of your values. Going through multiple sources of materials on that same topic will give you different perspectives and help you learn and internalize it better. And while/after you improve that area, another area of improvement will make itself apparent to you as the next area you should improve on. It’s a never-ending process, and that’s a good thing because all of us can always improve ourselves. Going through this process constantly will help you live a life of excellence!
I assume most of you have already started on the process of self-improvement (or else you probably wouldn’t be reading this in the first place), and that’s great! I encourage you to try this ten step process to see for yourself the difference it makes not only in the effectiveness of your self-improvement efforts. Start at step one, and then get out there and LEED!
The Excellence For Everyone: LIFE Goal Achievement System 
Good stuff Vance. Thanks for taking the time to eat, digest, then pass on the best from the process. Thanks for the connect, your interest in helping and even the potential appplication of what I read here to the First Steps process.
Thanks Pastor Tim! I hope you continue to read and comment on articles that I write! The more I can help, the better!