However, when excellence is too much defined as “doing things a little bit more, a little bit better than I just did it”, I am trapped by an unsustainable standard. If I just hit the ball 400 feet, then the next time needs to be 405, then 415, and so on. To achieve excellence this way demands constant improvement. I get stuck on a performance grid that is impossible to maintain. I begin to feel the pressure to have to be “on” all the time. To be “off” in any way becomes unacceptable. While you can “will” such performance for a while, I haven’t seen anyone who has been able to sustain it for a lifetime. Failure becomes inevitable. When there is a growing sense that failure is inevitable, you will also find a growing gap between ideas and action.

So could it be that the gap between our ideas and our actions could signify that we still too often live out of willpower and performance rather than values? Values have to be represented in our actions to be values. “I can do no other!” Willpower, however, is often zapped by the fear of failure. I can think of many times when my ideas and actions didn’t match because my willpower tank was too empty. It simply wasn’t worth the effort or the risk of failure.

Could this difference between living from values and living by willpower also explain why in today’s world leaders are choosing character first, then competence? Think of how many companies have crashed over putting up false performance numbers. This also represents the human result of the performance grid, when we can’t out do ourselves, we lie.