Make It Personal: A Tip for Personal Excellence

Yesterday, the author of the "LiteMind" blog contacted me with a  personal invite to participate in his latest collaborative project/contest. 

When I say "personal invite" I don’t mean one of those generic mass e-mails with my name  filled in by bot-script.   Nope.    Luciano Passuello (isn’t that a cool name?) went beyond the usual generic stuff, adding remarks that made it clear that not only had he actually been to my blog, but that he’d paid attention, and found a way to relate to me.

Hi Tori,

I recently found out about your blog and I like it very much! I think it has a lot to do with mine, actually (I once thought about making the logo a blue brain, too… REALLY!)

The reason I contact you is to invite you to join a new collaborative project I’ve put together….

By making his invite *actually* personal (rather than pretend personal) Luciano’s effort turned a potentially cold and impersonal blog contact into the beginnings of a relationship, and he upped the likelihood that I’d submit an entry for in his "Personal Excellence" project.

Which brings me to my own tip for personal excellence: 

Make Personal Excellence… personal

In other words, bring a part  of yourself into everything you do. 

The more your work reflects your individuality, the more it will stand out from the crowd, the more people will relate to you, the more "real" your achievements will seem to be.   

And when your efforts involve other people,  involve them on a personal level, as well.    Bring part of yourself into the project, but strive to bring part of other people into it, so that so that the project becomes a relationship that brings out the best in everyone involved.

The idea goes far beyond just social-networking of the sort that Luciano demonstrated with his email to me, for example, when writing a blog post,  make a point to intentionally engage your readers in a genuine way, asking for their advice, insight, related experiences, or a response via a poll. 

Or while cooking for your family, do it with thoughts of them — and whenever possible, involve them in the process of menu planning and meal prep.  Make the meal, and the act of cooking, personal, and it becomes part of the relationship.

On MindTweaks, this idea is most evident in the little details — how much care I put into formatting a post, choosing or creating an illustration, even the attention I put into font colors.   It’s my way of making each post very personal.  It’s subtle and often overlooked, but the over all impact of the blog is stronger, more inviting, more of *me*, and I like to think that comes through when others visit.

"What comes from the deep, goes to the deep"

That’s how a musician/artist friend put it to me, years ago.   It was his way of expressing the idea that true excellence not only comes from deep inside, that it’s personal and intimate, but that it reaches those same depths deep inside others,  rippling in echoes of.. well.. excellence, dude!  

Another friend preferred a theatre analogy; she was fond of reminding me that the greatest role I’d ever play was myself.   And when I was struggling with confusion or a lack of direction, she’d ask me "Stop and think a moment… what would Tori do, right now?"

Sometimes, my answer was "She’d pout, cry, and run around like a chicken with her head cut off!"  but I was the most excellent headless chicken around, gosh darn it!

Corny? Yes, a little.

But it works.  And in our oh-s0-modern, store-bought and prepackaged culture, I think sometimes we forget that the goal isn’t necessarily to reach that level of spit and polish perfection. 

Sometimes, being great just means being ourselves - and inviting others to do the same.

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MindTweak: None of us will ever accomplish anything excellent or commanding except when he listens to this whisper which is heard by him alone.                                                                            - Ralph Waldo Emerson
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