This is a series on values that I learned growing up which I still keep to this day. This series is six blogs long. We are on the second to the last of the values, value #5: STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE. (In case you’re interested, #1 was INTEGRITY, #2 was DOING CHORES, #3 was FINISH WHAT YOU START, and #4 was THE GOLDEN RULE. You can read these in the Recent Posts section.)
I start out with this funny story:
Life Explained by God (from atimetolaugh.org) When God created the world, he also created the dog, the monkey, and the cow. It's a simple story, told through the eyes of the dog, the monkey, and the cow, and their conversations with God during creation. God Created the Dog On the first day, God created the dog and said: "Sit all day by the door of your house and bark at anyone who comes in or walks past. For this, I will give you a life span of twenty years." The dog said: "That's a long time to be barking. How about only ten years and I'll give you back the other ten?" So God agreed with the dog. On the second day, God created the monkey and said: "Entertain people, Do tricks, and make them laugh. For this, I'll give you a twenty-year life span." The monkey said: "Monkey tricks for twenty years? That's a pretty long time to perform. How about I give you back ten like the dog did?" And God agreed with the monkey. On the third day, God created the cow and said: "You must go into the field with the farmer all day long and suffer under the sun, have calves, and give milk to support the farmer's family. For this, I will give you a life span of sixty years." The cow said: "That's kind of a tough life you want me to live for sixty years. How about twenty and I'll give back the other forty?" And God agreed again. On the fourth day, God created man and said: "Eat, sleep, play, marry and enjoy your life. For this, I'll give you twenty years." But man said: "Only twenty years? Could you possibly give me my twenty, the forty the cow gave back, the ten the monkey gave back, and the ten the dog gave back; that makes eighty, okay?" "Okay," said God, "You asked for it." So that is why the first twenty years we eat, sleep, play and enjoy ourselves. For the next forty years we slave in the sun to support our family. For the next ten years, we do monkey tricks to entertain the grandchildren. And for the last ten years, we sit on the front porch and bark at everyone. And that's how life is explained through God's creation.
This value of Striving for Excellence in All You Do would be communicated in different ways, as I was growing up. But one clear idea that my parents conveyed was that I wasn’t to do anything haphazardly, or leave things half-done. Along with the other value of Finish What You Start, in the Ben and Eleanor Sardual family, each one was expected to do whatever was assigned to the best of our abilities: when washing dishes, we were to make sure that the dishes came out clean; or when we were stacking prawns and ice in those metal bins during harvest time at the fishpond, it was done in a neat pile, instead of just dumping everything in, in order to get done faster.
Many a time, my parents would remind me to put my heart into whatever it was I was doing, as doing the opposite produced an outcome that was slipshod, slapdash, or hastily done, thus earning my parents’ ire. Whenever that happened, I ended up doing the task again until the desired outcome was achieved. This was the kind of work ethic that we were trained to have. There was no room for the “mantinir” (just getting by) mindset. You either get it done right the first time, or you’d end up doing it again until you finally got it right.
Looking back at those training moments, I remember really hating being told to do things right, especially because the times I was asked to do something always interrupted my fun/play time. And like every normal child’s reaction, I would try to get things done right away, not caring whether it was done right at all so that I could go back to playing again. This usually resulted to me be asked to re-do things because I didn’t do things right the first time. Today, I can attest to the effectivity of that training. I attribute my work ethic to this value and upbringing. I am where I am today partly because of this training.
This value did not just get practiced at our home. It was also present in the things my parents did outside of our home.
My Dad was the choir director of our home church. I remember how he would emphasize to the choir members the need to produce the right tone through the “use of the diaphragm and forming the mouth in the shape of an ‘O'”. The choir members would laugh at that reminder, but would diligently follow their choir director. That discipline and focus on excellence earned the UCCP Ipil Covenant Choir/”The Builders” respect as a choir that produced income-generating shows that people came to watch, and that would get to tour around Zamboanga del Sur, Zamboanga del Norte, and Misamis Occidental in the Philippines!
Nowadays, the emphasis is more on expediency or mediocrity, rather than excellence. In today’s world, everything is at the tip of our fingertips, so to speak. And everything’s available in a flash. If you’re not quite sure what the meaning of a word is, you just Google it, and voilà, the meaning is right in front of you, along with multiple examples of how to use it. Or if you want to find out the forecast at any given time of day, you just ask “Alexa” or “Siri” to give it to you. Even my 2-year-old son knows how to ask “Alexa” to play the Baby Shark song using voice command!
Whenever we need recommendations for good restaurants, we just post this question on Facebook and get a crowdsource list of recommendations in a few seconds. Undoubtedly, there’s a frenzy to be online or active almost all hours of the day, leaving little room for rest and peace. Hence our need for apps to help us achieve the quiet and “zen” moments!
Stop and think about it… how much of what we do or are currently involved in actually contribute to a lifestyle of excellence? Are we doing so many things at the same time that we end up producing shoddy work on each one? This reminds me of Malcolm Gladwell’s “10,000 hour rule” mentioned in his Outliers book. He says “it takes 10,000 hours of intensive practice to achieve mastery of complex skills and materials, like playing the violin or getting as good as Bill Gates at computer programming.”
This same commitment to honing one’s craft appears in a quote that I came across in my research on excellence, coming from Paul Russo, an American racer driver and a member of the Automotive Hall of Fame – Class of 1976:
Many people can reach for and achieve excellence. To do this consistently is what separates masters and geniuses from everyone else.
Remember the funny story I shared at the start of this blog? I chose to share it because in the Biblical narrative of the Creation Story, there is a line that appears after each “day’s work”: “And God saw that it was good.”
I believe that each of us has the capacity to do excellent work, if we only commit to doing it. This week, decide to stop taking shortcuts or doing haphazard work. Commit to excellence, and consistently do it.
