Inspiring Excellence – Alpha to Omega
Demonstrate excellence throughout your journey.
Excellence is a quality, a standard, and it will become the expected norm once you embrace excellence as a core value.
A commitment to excellence is best represented by the words Alpha to Omega. From beginning to end, first to last, and from start to finish-excellence always!
Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. In our world it has come to signify a beginning, the first step on the path to a goal. Alpha may be a plan, an action, or intention, but without it, one can never reach any goal.
Omega is the twenty-fourth and last letter of the Greek alphabet. Reaching it means you have gone through all the steps and reached your goal. You have accomplished what you set out to do, and demonstrated excellence throughout the journey.
But when it comes to excellence and getting results, omega does not mean the end. The reaching of one goal, frees you to set another, much more challenging goal.
So, while omega marks an accomplishment, it is the link between accomplishing one thing, and setting a new challenge. It is the link that completes and expands the circle of ever-increasing success and excellence.
Excellence is not a relative term. It is the standard by which you judge what you do, and it’s a form of currency that helps you both capture material wealth and realize the inherent value of your potential.
4 Responses to “Inspiring Excellence – Alpha to Omega”
Todd Tolson July 30th, 2009 at 1:47 pm
Gary,
I LOVE 99% of your post. While I agree that Excellence is NOT a relative term, it’s results will be relative to a person’s context. In other words, person A may have more contacts, information & amp; resources than person B.
Therefore, if both of them gave 100% effort, Person A’s outcome will look more “excellent” than Person B’s.
I’ll also push back a little and say that Person A may have more contacts, information & resources, and can only exert 80% (or less) effort and still “look” more excellent than Person B. While Person B who has less contacts, information & resources than Person A, but gives it their all.
Regardless of appearance, Person B would be more excellent. That’s why I say that Excellence is relative to a person’s context.
Todd
LaTonya October 7th, 2009 at 7:14 am
Excellent point Todd and thanks for saying that.
As I read the excellence piece, my thoughts immediately turned to another Blair blurb that I heard recently – analysis by paralysis. I’m definitely slowed down by analysis and I struggled with being faster after making that realization. The result is a feeling that I’m jeopardizing excellent. Though the analysis slows me down, in the end the results get me closer to my relative point of excellence.
Tom December 8th, 2009 at 4:12 pm
Although it may feel correct and to trudge closer to ‘excellence’ regardless of time constraints, in many contexts (medicine, sales, purchasing, inventing, exploring, etc), grinding through full and lengthy analysis process prior to finding your answer and making your decision is limited to inflexible, concrete deadlines, which are both real and tethered to dire consequences for failing to meet a time deadline.
Granted, if a deadline is artificial, then grinding out the most correct answer is desirable, but deadlines are deadlines for a reason. Something is riding on getting to the finish line before other.
Fawn February 4th, 2010 at 3:01 pm
Gary,
You make an excellent point in that Omega is not the end. In fact, it’s counterproductive to think that one Omega–no matter the size of the goal–will be the almighty answer, the provider of complete fulfillment . Goals, I’ve found, are similar to houses. A person, family moves into one and no matter how magnificent it is, they eventually outgrow it in some way and need to remodel, or move entirely. We change. Thus the Omega changes.