Marketplace Financial Advisor
THE PATH TO
EXCELLENCE By Carol Ringrose Alexander, CFP®, AIF®, CDFA™
T
rue excellence is inspiring, in all aspects of our lives. Excellence is the process of continually growing and improving. By day, Lori Mathews is a dietician at Deaconess Hospital. In the evening, she teaches cardio and toning classes at the YMCA five days a week. “My passion is to provide exercise that people enjoy, which helps them meet their fitness goals and improve their quality of life,” Mathews said. By helping people stay healthy, she helps them avoid the consequences of poor choices that she sees every day. “My work in the hospital makes me appreciate good health.” What is your calling? In his book What Should I Do With My Life?, Po Bronson writes that your calling “has to take on personal significance and be woven into the story of your life.” Mathews clearly has a passion for teaching. Her classes are challenging because she pushes herself to improve. Her enthusiasm and energy inspire people to work at a level beyond what they can envision. She has a loyal following of regular attendees, some of whom have been taking her classes for 10 years. People line the hallways before her class. Participants say that because of Lori’s class, they can “go skiing without being injured,” “minimize pain by building strength and flexibility,” “keep up with my grandchildren” or simply “have a better quality of life.” In 1995, Mathews was a student at the University of Oklahoma, juggling classes, study, work and exercise. Although she didn’t plan to teach fitness classes, a friend encouraged her to seek certification. She found getting paid to exercise efficient both in terms of time and money. “I’ve learned that there are some situations in life in which you have to embrace some discomfort. If you do, you may eventually overcome this discomfort and become good at what you do!” she said. Behind every great performance is consistent practice and discipline. It is inconceivable that your performance will ever exceed the quality of your practice. In Outliers, Malcolm Gladwell writes, “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” Mathews didn’t plan to
keep teaching after graduation, but found she has a gift. She started teaching because it made sense and honed her skills through repetition and by creating an experience that met her criteria for excellence. Doesn’t that formula apply to most activities in life? “The idea that excellence at performing a complex task requires a critical Carol Ringrose Alexander minimum level of practice surfaces again and again in studies of expertise,” Gladwell writes. “In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: 10,000 hours.” The neurologist Daniel Levitin writes, “10,000 hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert – in anything.” It takes roughly 10 years to put in 10,000 hours of hard practice. Mathews’ goal was to help people have healthier lifestyles, which she planned to do through her training in nutrition. She found she has an even greater impact by teaching exceptional exercise classes. By devoting yourself to doing your best in all aspects of your life, you may unexpectedly find and develop ways to contribute. I challenge you to look for examples of excellence around you and use them for inspiration. Define what excellence means to you and determine exactly where and how you will demonstrate it, whether in physical or financial fitness. Test your limits by raising the bar in every aspect of your life and the results will amaze you. Carol Alexander is a financial advisor with Retirement Investment Advisors, which has been recognized as one of the top, fee-only investment advisory firms in the nation 29 times in national publications.