Excellence is mundane. Excellence is accomplished through the doing of actions, ordinary in themselves, performed consistently and carefully, habitualized, compounded together, added up over time. While these actions are “qualitatively different” from those of performers at other levels, these differences are neither unmanageable nor, taken one step at a time, terribly difficult.
Every time a decision comes up, the qualitatively “correct” choice will be made. The action, in itself, is nothing special; the care and consistency with which it is made are.
We ought not to view it as something special, as depraved, or in some magical way better than other kinds of behavior. We ought to see it simply as a kind of behavior some disapprove of and others value, studying the processes by which either or both perspectives are built up and maintained.
– Howard Becker, Author, Outsiders.
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