“The quality of a person’s life is directly proportional to their commitment to excellence.”—Vince Lombardi

I don’t think it’s entirely true.

Plenty of people are deeply committed to excellence and still face hardship. Circumstances, ancestry, DNA, luck—those things all matter.

But it’s likely mostly true. Life tends to get better, richer (whatever that means to you), and more meaningful in proportion to how seriously you pursue excellence.

Excellence is personal. It means something different to each of us. Your definition and mine are probably not the same. And while I think comparing yourself to others is generally a bad idea, if you never compare yourself to anything real—someone better, something harder—how do you know your standard means anything at all? It might just be hollow.

Just comfort dressed up as conviction.

Maybe real excellence happens when it collides with reality. And the truth is, reality often exists outside your own head.

It’s easy to avoid that. Hard to confront it.That moment when you say, maybe I’m not as good as I think.Or maybe that wasn’t as good as I thought.

Of course, there are exceptions. You and I can look at the same piece of art and feel completely different things. So maybe, like just about everything else, excellence isn’t fixed.

Maybe the standard moves.Maybe there are always new ones.Maybe none of us are right.

But I do think this is true:Not everyone who commits to excellence finds an excellent life. But no one finds it without the commitment.

Take care, friend. Be good.

—Kelly

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