“Do not suppose that, if you find something hard to achieve, it is beyond human capacity; rather, if something is possible and appropriate for man, assume that it must also be within your own reach.” -Marcus Aurelius
One of humanity’s more unifying qualities is the following: we enjoy watching talent on display. One needn’t look any further than the inclination to share an impressive video or to pick up the phone and vote for your Idol favorite (did I just time travel or did you?). Appealing to our lesser selves, this fundamentally correlates to a desire to be entertained; appealing to our higher selves, this comes from a genuine celebration and appreciation of human capability. It reminds us of what an individual can do, illuminating, even for a moment, what we might be able to do as well. This is why performers of all sorts, from the artistic to the athletic, draw crowds—for a blip in time, we get to bear witness to human capability realized, in a way that invites us into it too. A concept well articulated by author James Carse, at their best, creativity and capability on display engender the same in those who witness. This is the difference between performance done in vain and performance that invites. Excellence invites.
Nothing may underscore this quite as well as the feats that take place at the Olympics. American 400-meter hurdler Dalilah Muhammad ran 1.5 seconds faster in the 2021 Tokyo Olympics where she won Silver, than in 2016’s Rio Olympics where she won Gold. (Bears noting that her Tokyo performance set for herself a new personal best. Go Dalilah.) What this reveals for us is this: we don’t always do as well as we can, but as well as we have to.
"Excellence withers without an adversary." -Seneca
It is difficult to conjure the motivation to do something when you don’t feel pained by not doing it. An unwillingness to be challenged is often accompanied by the notion that one is doing just fine. In an Olympic race (or any competitive arena with opponents physically present), one’s “adversary” is obvious, occupying an adjacent lane. In a matter of seconds, you or they become the standard. It’s no surprise, then, that many races in which an Olympic or World Record is set yields many a personal best among runners in that same race. The excellence so clearly present in the winner brings forth new levels of excellence in all. These underemphasized resulting achievements—excellence influenced—are each incredible in their own right; medal or otherwise, the act of outdoing oneself is proof enough of having risen to the occasion. It’s for this reason that we shouldn’t underestimate the impact of who we surround ourselves with. Those closest to us have the power to bring forth our best or our worst. If excellence inspires, mediocrity justifies. If those I know don’t try, why, then, should I? For this reason, the pursuit of anything less than what we’re capable of can be a disservice not only to ourselves, but to others.
For many of us, our adversary is unlikely to be physicalized in the form of an elite athlete running with all their might less than a foot away from us. Sometimes our adversary must be our own comfort, our own intolerance for challenge. The Stoics encourage stress inoculation, the regular controlled exposure to suboptimal conditions as practical training against debilitating dependence on external comforts. In this practice is the recognition of unchecked comfort as our adversary. Any strength upon which we are over reliant is a weakness, as its removal lays bare what is actually there.
So undeniably demonstrated by the practice regimens and training schedules of elite performers across disciplines is an acute clarity in one’s intended path. Each day presents us with the choice to decide where it is we want to be excellent, as evidenced by the standards we choose to adhere to. While giving our best is worthy, giving our best in the areas that align to our values is where satisfaction lies. Excellence exhibited in extremes, though, can yield polarizing responses ranging from inspiration to doubt, making it all the more significant that we see excellence not as an objective external measure, but a personal barometer for performance against our own standards. In competition, winning can only take place in the context of other participants. This is where the performative and the personalized paths diverge—our game is played against ourselves. One fails only when she fails herself.
Personalized excellence is the dedicated adherence to one’s own standards for living. It is not the ousting of those who think or operate differently, nor is it the unevaluated adherence to externally-imposed ideals. It is, in fact, the inevitable result of living in alignment with one’s values—for how could such a life not be excellent? Excellence recognizes the lie of comparison, as each person is fundamentally and distinctly on their own journey rich with inclinations custom to their intents.
And thus, our chief task in our pursuit of our own excellence is the identification of that intent, and of the values we aim to maintain and realize along our paths. It’s in this exercise that we learn the race we’re running.
"...nothing is good for man except what makes him just and temperate, brave and free, and that nothing is bad except what gives rise to the opposing vices.” -Marcus Aurelius
The topic of excellence requires explicitness in what is not being encouraged: people-pleasing, burning oneself out to meet unsustainable standards, continuously starving the mind and body of the rest or replenishment it needs, the pursuit of extreme measures to mask brokenness. Excellence is not unreasonable. Rather, it’s the consistent pursuit of one’s best in a manner wholly rooted in reason, in conscious, capable thought.
In episode #483 of The Tim Ferriss Show podcast, Tim and organizational leadership author Jim Collins have a powerful conversation around the topic of “drive." To anyone who would remotely consider themselves ambitious, the word “drive" or the idea of being driven tends to positively resonate. What Tim and Jim illuminate is that the state of being driven has an inherent push quality, where one is compelled to push against a certain struggle or association they’d like to be rid of. For this reason, a person’s pursuit of achievement is often accompanied by a sort of painful exhaustion. Alternatively, what we should seek is our pull—those ideas, interests, curiosities that naturally pull us toward them. Unlike the push of drive, these pulls aren’t fueled by struggle.
Excellence can start with drive, but it’s not healthily sustained by it. It’s the act of responding to the pull in such a way that the pursuit of your excellence simply becomes the pursuit of your life. It is not a strain against or denial of reality. It’s consciously choosing how you want to shape your reality. We are remiss when we conflate excellence with some sort of distant, conceptual ideal. Personalized excellence is the crafting of one’s own ideal in a way that is both sustainable and freeing.
Be harsh with yourself and gentle with others, the Stoics implore. To be harsh with yourself is to recognize when you’ve fallen short of your own standards; gentleness with others is the acknowledgement that they, too, have circumstances and standards of their own. What we may suffer from is the tendency to engage the inverse, being harsher with others than we are with ourselves. The clashes we see take place in society most commonly occur between people who have vehement beliefs for how others should act. The individual focused on their own behavior and how it aligns to their aims rarely finds himself in the throes of aggressive chatter about how others must behave.
An increased emphasis on accountability to one's own standards decreases judgement, and along with it, the need for others to operate in specific ways.
“Where you arrive does not matter so much as what sort of person you are when you arrive there.” -Seneca
It’s in the simple profundity so characteristic of the Stoics’ writing where we’re met with this reminder from Seneca: wherever we go, we go. That is, it’s in our better interest to focus not strictly on the where of our paths, but on who we aim to be along them. The exercise of defining our personalized excellence, and operating accordingly, is aimed at ensuring our contentedness whenever we arrive to wherever it is we’re arriving. Unlike goals, the pursuit of excellence has no marked completion. It is the ongoing state of living in congruence with who we've decided to be.