Not all decisions are life or death, but this one is.

I believe in excellence. And I believe we are responsible for creating it.

We enjoy the product of other people’s excellence every time we listen to our favorite music, read our favorite books, watch our favorite athletes, and eat at our favorite restaurants.

We expect excellence from people we rely on, like the pilots flying our planes, doctors treating our families, elected officials leading our countries, and teachers educating our kids.

If we expect or demand excellence from others, integrity demands we expect it from ourselves as well.

You don’t have to define excellence like everyone else or allow anyone else to define it for you. But you are responsible for defining excellence in your life and living disciplined in pursuit of it.

I’ve written a lot about excellence already this year:

• Build a life of excellence by laying one disciplined brick at a time.
• Aim your external efforts at excellence and your internal efforts at fulfillment.
• Pursue excellence, not perfection. 

But before you can pursue excellence, let alone produce it, you must make a fundamental choice. Because you can’t reach excellence while you’re still attached to average.

The excellence in you can’t live until the average in you dies.

Today may not be the day you decide to burn and bury the average in yourself, but someday, you have to decide: “Which version of me gets to live and which must die?”

You don’t have forever to think about it, either. You’re laying bricks today, just like you did yesterday and will tomorrow.

Risky average bricks or the secure bricks of excellence. That’s the inescapable choice.

Brick by brick. Do the work.