One of my daughters had the opportunity to learn a great lesson Saturday.  I am not sure if it sank in yet, but she saw the difference between “good” and “excellent”.    She was competing in an oratorical contest for a scholarship and, as is sometimes the case with teens, she procrastinated in preparing for it.  The procrastination was driven not by laziness, but by an overly busy schedule.  As a result, she was up until midnight the night before working on the speech and then putting the finishing touches on it at seven the morning of the competition.

At the competition, my daughter did a good job presenting her speech and it was well-written; however, it was not memorized and she exceeded the time limit by five seconds.  The winners gave speeches that, in my opinion, were not as content-rich but they had obviously spent much time in preparation and memorization.  The judges favored preparedness and timeliness. 

On the way home, we talked about good vs excellent and the fact that to be excellent requires planning and sacrifice.  I explained to my daughter that I hoped she would learn from this experience that she is capable of having absolutely anything in life that she wants as long as she is willing to pay the price.  In this case, the price would have been hours of practice with a stopwatch.

I often hear people compare themselves to others in terms of finances or career success.  They may blame their situation on bad luck or poor circumstances but I think it comes down to one simple thing:  success requires sacrifice.  Those who are willing to sacrifice, eventually will become successful.  Those who don’t stop at “good enough” will achieve excellence and success will follow.

Do you believe you can have ANYTHING in life that you desire?  You can - but are you willing to pay the price?