If You Want to Be Excellent, Get Comfortable Saying...

Practical wisdom for building a life and craft that truly matter.

We confuse excellence with hustle, optics, and appearances. But real excellence is quieter, deeper, and harder. It’s about caring enough to pay close attention, practicing the same things over and over, learning from your failures, staying curious, and showing up even when it’s inconvenient. In many ways, it looks less like chasing glory and more like love—steadfast, patient, and committed.

Here are 10 reminders worth keeping close if you’re serious about pursuing true excellence:

When you set a goal, you are deciding how to spend your time and energy—which is to say you are deciding what kind of person you want to become.

You shape the goal, but then the goal shapes you.

Make it ambitious but achievable. Make it inspirational but practical.

You can have all the talent in the world but it doesn’t matter if you don’t care.

There is nothing cringe about caring. What’s cringe is not caring.

The best performances (and lives) require laying it on the line; the best performances (and lives) require having the courage to care.

Be a minimalist to be a maximalist. Avoid the shallow so you can go deep. Say no to distractions so you can say yes to what matters.

Attention vampires are lurking everywhere. Bright and shiny objects abound. Resist the urge to major in the minors. Focus on fundamentals over fads. Keep the main things the main things.

The shift from I need to do this or I’m scared to do this to let’s find out what happens is a powerful one.

Greatness is as much about self-exploration and self-discovery as it is about anything else. The urge to find out what you’re capable of is a renewable source of energy.

Nothing is more important than showing up—again and again and again.

Show up on your good days. Show up on your bad days. Every effort is a deposit in the bank.

The bigger the goal, the smaller the steps. The work is taking them regularly.

Commitment and consistency.

Arrogance is loud; it comes from insecurity.

Confidence is quiet; it comes from evidence.

Psychologists call this self-efficacy. You own your seat because you’ve done the work. You’ve given yourself the evidence that you belong.

Research shows that if you sit within 25 feet of a high performer, your performance improves by 15%. But if you sit within 25 feet of a low performer, your performance declines by 30%. There are similar findings for other emotions and behaviors.

The people with whom you surround yourself shape you. Choose wisely.

If you never fail you’ll never be great—because it means you’ll never have pushed your limits.

Failure hurts.

Sugarcoating it doesn’t help.

Feel your feelings. Learn from it if you can. And then get back to work.

Driven people tend to always be pushing forward. This is good.

But the older I get the more I realize the importance of being where you are and finding joy there too.

As Robert Pirsig once wrote, the only zen you find on the tops of mountains is the zen you bring up there with you.

The people who sustain success over the long-haul are rarely shooting for success. They are focused on the path. Their goal is mastery, which knows no end. They find fulfillment and satisfaction in the process, and the results take care of themselves.

There is always more to learn. Always room to grow.

The goal is the path. The path is the goal.