Audrey Johnson: Striving for Excellence

Intro Piece by Erik Leden from LBC

Most people don't strive to be better than average. Mediocrity is just good enough for most. Most people look at something they have to do and they simply set the bar too low - they do enough to get by, but not to excel, not to knock it out of the park. Excellence is not a skill; it's a CHOICE. It's also not perfection. It is not even striving for perfection.

It's the ATTITUDE that anything worth doing is worth doing well. Excellence is also a reputation - you become the person that people come to know strives to do everything well. It's a way of life; and we all get to choose if we will live in excellent fashion or not.

Be that much better. Set your bar higher. Do a little more. Try a little harder. Recommit.

I've said it before, but this sums it up nicely - don't set your goals high if you're not equally prepared to set your standards and expectations of yourself even higher.

Audrey has been working toward a body weight of 135 lbs since last Feb. Started at 188, weighed in yesterday at 140.8, down a little over 47 lbs. Lost 2 since early Dec. She attended 3 Thanksgiving and 5 Christmas functions with family and tables of high calorie food, never once gave in to temptation. Kept her head, checked her emotions, enjoyed the family functions but didn't blow it out. She like others chose to show up, could have used holiday gluttony as an excuse, family pressure, whatever, and didn't. Only trains with us 3d/wk and runs about 4 mi on the weekend. That's it. Came in second today in the power index with Plate Royales, second overall including the men. To lose 47 lbs and remain powerful is a very challenging endeavor. Anyone can cleanse, do countless hours of aerobics and live on green beans and tuna, perhaps add a little fairy dust to the mix and you'll look good, for a while. However, if you want to be good and stay good for life, that takes a person that shows up every day for them self and strives for excellence. Only you can set the standard for yourself, it's your choice.