by Deborah Kintner

If you are experiencing dissatisfaction with your life and your work, a possible reason for this malaise may involve complacency and insufficient novelty. When your work loses its challenge, life and work may feel bland. Consequently, injecting excitement through the continual pursuit of excellence may improve your level of satisfaction immensely. Living by the following principles will provide such an injection.

  1. Find and follow your passion.
    When you love what you do and truly put your heart and soul into it, you can’t help but feel exhilarated. What makes you feel truly alive and eager to get going every time you engage in it? Once you find it, do it as often and with as much energy as you can.
  2. Do more than is expected of you.
    Don’t limit yourself to just completing what is in your job description. Set your goals above what others expect of you and do the things needed to accomplish them. Offer a higher level of service – a level which brings you pride and gratification in what you offer.

    Once you have accomplished these goals, rather than sit back on your laurels, raise the bar. By continually elevating your standards, you avoid boredom and maintain a sense of enthusiasm and accomplishment.

  3. Believe that what you do makes a difference.
    Find the ways that your activities can better the lives of others and focus on this effect. If you touch the lives of even a few people in the world, you have made a difference. Rather than expecting yourself to “save the world” en masse, stress the importance of helping one person at a time. In addition, remind yourself that the seeds you plant today may reach fruition without your awareness. Believe in the worth of what you have to offer and know that you are changing lives in some positive way. What greater satisfaction can you ask for!
  4. Exercise your creativity.
    Few things in life cause greater exhilaration than the creative processes. Find ways to use them throughout your life. Develop innovative methods for rendering your services. Deliver services not offered before. Let the creative juices flow and see what happens.
  5. Customize and personalize your services.
    Each client comes to you with highly unique needs. Rather than offering a standard package of services or products, work toward fully meeting the needs of the individual by formulating a unique package for that single person or corporation. Strive to meet the special needs, situations, and expectations of each person who enters your sphere of influence. There is no better way to create customer satisfaction and to illustrate the value of what you offer. Customers who are treated in this fashion will become the most effective marketing for your enterprises.
  6. Emphasize the process rather than the outcome.
    By focusing on doing your utmost each and every day in the field of your choice and on the joy of creating the best product or services you can deliver, you can feel gratified with your work, even if others do not respond as you wish.

Rather than settling for an ordinary, humdrum life, seek to soar by reaching for excellence in all you do. Follow your passion. Live and work creatively. You can end up with a quality of life you never dreamed possible.