Something to love about human beings is the way they cling to their imaginations and how persistent they are in turning these figments into reality. However, when interpreted and executed badly, that’s when this behavior could turn into something terrifying and cruel.
Admit it or not, everyone has this drive to push themselves into someone they never thought would have existed. Every individual starves for improvement and excellence in all aspects. This is how people live and survive. Without goals and dreams, without discoveries and mistakes, we would not know the limits of our imaginations and abilities. Things we can do and things we cannot do are things that we must discover ourselves while we live in this world.
Working within comfortable tolerances is fine for those who want to keep things simple. Maintaining implies adopting a “preserve” mentality. To improve, grow, achieve, or advance in almost any way, we must push the envelope of potential risk and assess our boundaries.
In other words, there is no gain if there is no risk. The trick is to weigh our desire to protect ourselves with the fortitude that will allow us to achieve our goals in life. There is this one great saying of Arthur C. Clarke that I will never forget: “The limits of the possible can only be defined by going beyond them into the impossible.” Hence, people create endless visions and goals and then build extraordinary realities and experiences. However, a few people often barely notice it anymore but they starve for excellence and their competitive behavior is somewhat gradually leading to the destruction of our society and environment.
The cartoon attached to this article can be interpreted differently by various individuals. Allow me to brief you on its representations and depictions of reality. The several buildings found in the drawing are the buildings of the thoughts and ideas constantly formed and fostered in our minds. The consistency of our behavior to strive for excellence and to test the potential of our limits make up the various buildings here. As can be seen, the buildings are constantly undergoing development and changes, because just like our ideas, we never settle for what is right in front of us. We never settle for our minimum skills and abilities. We always go beyond what is expected from us and we always challenge ourselves to create something that we thought would never exist.
The idea of this drawing is that people are gradually becoming obsessed with always being the best among everyone without realizing that we have also destroyed the people and environment around us because of this. The buildings here were intentionally drawn unfinished and they are never going to be fully established—not until people realize the difference between stupidity and genius–because genius knows that they have limits and they know what their limits are.
On the other hand, the smokes that can be seen in the cartoon are a representation of all the cruel consequences, once an individual strives too much for excellence and constant improvements. When smoke comes out, this is the time when we forget what matters most–purpose. What is our purpose? Why did we start establishing this building? How do I want to end this? We forget to ask ourselves these common questions, thus, making us ignorant and too driven by perfection and constant change. Setting and considering limits is an important part of life management.
However, the rules of physics limit you and your potential, while on the other hand, you must set some limits for yourself to sustain daily discipline and reach your goals more effectively. Humans are pattern-based beings who see patterns even when none exist, and limits are an important part of patterns. In our lives, limits are nothing but minimums and maximums.
The drive to pursue excellence will always be part of human nature since it has been linked to our very existence since the beginning. Excellence will always differ from person to person since everyone has different views on life itself. The pursuit will always be there for everyone, what differs is the effort and passion put into it. Excellence will come in many shapes and forms but the underlying commonalities for all of them are the drive and motivation that it instills in people. Allowing them to perform and find a purpose for their existence in life. It is that pursuit of that particular excellence that gives society their various means to give value to the life we are living.
Pursuit and excellence will matter, but in the end, everyone should realize that the process or the journey towards excellence will matter the most compared to actual excellency itself. It is through the process that you shape and mold individuals to reap their efforts, so that is why we should cherish everything at every step of the way since everything builds upon itself and what matters is the drive to go forward.
