The Habit of Excellence

This episode showcases one factor that can drive people to win back their strong will to achieve great things in life — personal goals, professional goals, or even the fight for justice.

Hello!

This is your host Sayar Henry and thank you for paying attention to Season 2 of this podcast.

Before talking about today’s topic, I have a few words say to my audience. Three weeks ago, I decided to take rest from creating new episodes after completing Season 1 because I felt the need to recharge my creativity. And I also expected that people would stop listening to my episodes as I’m not producing new ones and constantly showcasing these on social media. But to my surprise, there are always some people who are listening to my episodes every single day. And I’m also very surprised and pleased at the same time because there are people who keep listening to some of my episodes not just once but multiple times. I am so thrilled. I mean even when I listen to my favorite podcasts, I almost never listen to an episode more than once. So, learning that my episodes are replay-friendly and that I have an audience that consumes my episodes repeatedly give me strength to continue my podcast journey further. So I thank you all from the bottom of my heart.

In today’s episode, I want to talk about a driving force that is pushing me to focus on things that matter to me the most and help me get a lot of work done. But before diving into the details, allow me to make myself clear about one crucial point.

I am not pushing you with this topic to increase your productivity or to think about your future goals and career plans. I’m simply not doing that. If productivity and business goals are what matter to you right now, sure, go for it. But please remember that it’s not my primary intention. If you have been listening to my podcast throughout Season 1, it’d be obvious enough to you that I am a teacher who deeply values Democracy, Freedom and Justice. And since our fellow citizens of Myanmar are still fighting for democracy with all the might they have, it’s best for everyone to put the head in the right game. We should all focus on supporting and healing each other throughout this big fight, which of course is one of the main reasons I created this podcast. I mean I’m not going to jeopardize the momentum of the revolution in any way. Not even the slightest. So, even though I may use some work-related experiences to highlight my message, you can always translate it into the context of the Spring Revolution.

Now, with that in mind, let’s explore the driving force that serves me as a source of inspiration and motivation. When people say words like inspiration and motivation, they generally associate it with some famous people or best-selling books. I’m not going to talk about these. Sure, there are some people and books that left me with positive impacts, but these will be covered in a different episode, not this one. Okay…. So, if it’s not books and people, then what drives me to work hard? What drives me to create things?

Well, here is the short answer: A good quality work in the past drives me to create another good quality work in the future.

Let me repeat it.

A good quality work in the past drives me to create another good quality work in the future.

What do I mean by that?

It means I am driven by the quality of work I have achieved in the past.

Everything I do now is inspired by things I did in the past.

And I’m aware that it might sound strange or even weird to some people.

So to help you really understand what I mean by that and how it works, let me tell you about something I did 7 years ago from now.

It was 2014 and I was a younger and less matured private teacher who was coaching a girl with her English skill. Back then, I didn’t have my own courses yet. So I had to pull my teaching materials from a variety of different sources like reference books and resources from the internet. But there was one brilliant idea I incorporated into my teaching sessions with that girl. After every session with her, I would take out my notebook and closely documented my methods and her progress. In another word, I kept a detailed journal of what I taught her, how she responded to that, what I did right and what I did not. For me, at that time, I was trying to test my hypothesis and conducting things in a very scientific manner. I can’t remember why I was so obsessed and systematic with that little project of mine. But I guess I was just pushing hard to get a fresh perspective on language learning and to discover something of my own.

After several months of conducting these ‘experiment’ sort of teaching sessions and analyzing these notes, I gained valuable insights and I was so happy with my work. Not that the girl improved her English in the world’s fastest way or anything. It’s just that I was so satisfied with the quality of my research.

But what I didn’t realize then was that these findings were going to lay the foundation for what would later be known as Ear Training Course – the first highlight of my teaching career. It took me just a few more months of development to use these ideas and come up with a unique course that would forever change the way a student practices listening skill. I named it Ear Training Course because the components I put in it have every right to be acknowledged that way. So when I started delivering the course for the first time in 2015, every student loved it from Day 1. And I knew I made it.  

In my mind, I always remember that I didn’t create that course out of thin air. It was based on my meticulous notes – a high quality documentation that I created in the past. I began to feel like my attitude that values high quality work was finally giving me a reward. And then good things escalated quickly. I created new courses one after another. The first one to follow Ear Training was Insight Readers Course. It took shape as I figured out how to transfer my ability to read English like a detective and the ways I use to guess the definition of new words into a course. And then another one was known as Power Writers Course which focused on the tips and tricks of good and effective writers.

All of these courses have served their purpose well. But the development process of each of these was never easy. It was always challenging, time-consuming, and even frustrating at times. But I had a way around it. Every time I wanted to create a new course, I stepped back and took a look at my previous courses. For example, to create Insight Readers Course, I looked back at Ear Training Course. And because Ear Training was so well-received, I felt confident that I could create another great one. As a result, I did good with Insight Readers Course too. And then to create Power Writers Course, I looked back at both Ear Training and Insight Readers. Then I would think to myself, “Damn. These are so good. How the heck did I even manage to create these?” and I would get inspired by these previous works. Then using these previous pieces of good work as a source of inspiration and motivation, I would continue to create another good piece of work. Then eventually, the same process happens with every subsequent work, even including this podcast. Every time I plan to create a new episode, I take a look back at my highest quality episodes and get energy from these. 

Now, I believe that you are getting a better picture of what I said earlier.

“A good quality work in the past drives me to create another good quality work in the future.”

It all makes sense now, doesn’t it?

There are many people who likes to learn about other people’s work so that they can get inspired.

There are many people who likes to read biographies of historical figures so that they can get motivated.

These are all good and valuable, yes.

But to me, based on my personal experiences, the process of getting some serious work done shouldn’t rely too much on external factors like these.

All you need is the right attitude towards high quality work and the willingness to practically achieve such quality.

Once you have achieved it, your piece of quality work at present will automatically become a source of inspiration for your future-self.

In another word, just produce a piece of high-quality work at present, and the future version of you will come back, take a look at it and then thank you for it.

Because only then, your future version will remember that you have a history of excellence.

And only when you realize you have a history of excellence, you will form the habit of excellence.  

And only those who pursue the habit of excellence will have a life of excellence.

Ladies and gentlemen, this is the end of this episode. I sincerely hope that you get some thoughts out of this episode. Please remember to take a look back at your previous efforts whenever you feel down or hopeless. The Spring Revolution has come a long way, much further than most people predicted. That means there are plenty of energy and inspiration from the journey that can fuel us along the way ahead.

We are going strong, and we are heading for victory. Justice will find a way.