Effort Defines Excellence.

A few weeks ago I had to take a test which I needed to pass in order to get into the elementary education program. It's called the Praxis, and it is one monster of a test. I didn't study as much as I probably should have, and so I wasn't too excited to see what I got. As luck would have it, I did well.....very well, actually, and I ended up scoring in the top 15% of test takers....an honor which I far from deserved. So a few days ago I got an envelope from the praxis company, and inside I found a large navy blue folder with the word "Excellent" written across it in gold. Well then! There you have it people, I have arrived. I am now officially excellent. I smiled to myself, amused, and said a little prayer of gratitude.
This experience got me thinking about the way we perceive excellence. It seems a bit superficial, really. You see, what I accomplished in passing this test was not really excellent, at all. I studied for a few hours beforehand, then walked into the testing center with my fingers crossed, hardly more intelligent than I had been a few days earlier, and just happened to do well. What would have been excellent is if I had truly struggled to learn and grow in the process of achieving my score. What would have been excellent is if I had tried and failed and struggled again and tried and failed and struggled yet again until I finally passed, and came out on the other side of it more intelligent and accomplished than before. You see, excellence is often skewed by the way we perceive things. Excellence, in my opinion, is not found in the end results of efforts (i.e., the score I received), but in the efforts themselves. All too often in our world, small efforts are rewarded with great results, and great efforts are rewarded with small results.
Let me give you another academic example of this, even though it could very well apply to a whole host of areas in life, this just seems to be the area on my mind. I have a good friend who has been taking math classes with me this year in school. Math doesn't come as easily to this friend as it seems to come to me, and consequently, she has had to exert a lot more effort in the process of trying to pass these classes than I have. Along the way, I have pulled off As without exerting any great amount of effort, while she has been rewarded with mostly Cs for her greater amounts of effort. In the end, all of her efforts will ultimately be rewarded with one letter....the letter "C" recorded somewhere on some computer screen, and the world will label this as average. But in the long run, I was the average student, not her.
So my point here, I guess, is that I think we should all be careful with how we choose to label "excellence". Let us give a little more credit to the girl who is putting great efforts in for average grades, as apposed to those who study little and yet boast of good grades. Let us see past the awards and good looks and personae of those around us, and strive to congratulate people instead on their great efforts.

Here is a quote by Teddy Roosevelt that illustrates my point beautifully:

"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat."

Christmas Time

I can already feel the spirit of Christmas! I'm so excited for this next month...the Christmas season is definitely my favorite time of year. I feel the spirit more frequently during this season because everyone makes an extra effort to give and to remember Christ. People are always talking about how busy the holidays get...but I hope we can all remember why we are celebrating this time of year. Take a moment to slow down and really think about what Christ has done for you. Also, I love my family!!! I love the quality time that I get to spend with them during Christmas. It really is such a magical time. Merry Christmas!!