99% Inspiration, 1% Perspiration
Do you ever experience complete inspiration from someone you come into contact with? Someone who makes you want to be a better person or strive for greater things?
This semester I am blessed with great inspiration. One of the inspirations in my life right now is one of my professors at CBU. He teaches two of the graphic design classes I have to take for my minor. Not only is he an excellent professor who knows what he is teaching, but he also incorporates the right ratio of teaching and inspiration.
Although CBU has many wonderful professors, it is a real treat to have someone who makes you want to learn, besides just helping you learn. Professor Steve Cox makes me want to soak up all the knowledge he has and go far with it. Something that he stresses often is that no one wants anything mediocre. No one wants 10 mediocre designs if you can have one great design. His encouragement is always to strive for excellence.
As much as I recall, I have never experienced anyone who pushed me to strive for excellence. I have always had my own personal motivation. It helped a lot that my parents were teachers at my school pretty much my whole life, so I had to stay accountable for keeping up in my academic life. Even in my spiritual life, I have motivated myself to seek God and be the best Christian I can be. Maybe my inspiration in the areas of my life came from a desire to be the best in everything, but I never have been so inspired to be the best I can be just for excellence’s sake.
I have been blessed to have support from family, sufficient money to live, people who encourage and teach me, and no disabilities. But I have seen people with huge disadvantages do amazing, great things. Sometimes I wonder if being normal and having life easier than most is a disability in itself. When things come easily, it might be more difficult to strive for excellence. We may think: “If I can do an average, mediocre job of something, why make it perfect? Why try to make it better?”
I just watched a video on YouTube of a man who weighed 275 pounds and could barely run 10 yards without stopping, because he could not breathe. His dream was to run the Boston Marathon to raise money for his niece who had cystic fibrosis. Although his obesity was a big hurdle, he strove for excellence, and now he is healthy. He has run 12 marathons in 2.5 years since he ran his first marathon, and he has raised money to fund research for cystic fibrosis. You can watch the video on this link:
It is inspiring to see people do great things and become better people. Strive for excellence and inspire others to do the same. Have a great week!
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