K. Joia Houheneka is a global leader in luxury entrepreneurship. She is the founder of Club Elevate+Aspire+, an application-only exclusive community for entrepreneurs building high-end, premium, and/or luxury businesses.
Excellence is a journey, one with many potential pitfalls and obstacles along the way. However, knowing where we’re likely to trip up can help us prevent self-sabotaging our own success.
“Take aim.
Take flight.
Take it all in
To express is all out
Anew,
Reworked.
Made more excellent.
Made in an image of godly potential.
Made to be yours.”
(From “Poetic Fragments” by K. Joia Houheneka)
If you’re reading this in the 21st century, I’m sure you’re busy. Everyone is busy. (And let me say, I genuinely appreciate that you’re taking some of your time to – if nothing else – skim through this article. For that, I thank you.)
But with all the hustle – are you achieving excellence?
Perhaps it’s the most important question: are you achieving excellence?
Unfortunately, even those of us who conscientiously and intentionally commit to excellence can find ourselves hung up from previous habits or patterns of thinking and acting that prevent us from attaining the greatness that ought to be ours. Thankfully, a little self-awareness and knowing what potential dangers we should be on the lookout for can go a long way to keeping us on track.
As an Excellence Coach, a significant part of my life’s work is to empower and support others to overcome the often unwittingly self-imposed obstacles that are sabotaging their achievements of excellence.
Here are 8 of the most common self-induced “enemies” I’ve found that keep people from their otherwise rightful excellence, and what you can do to be triumphant:
Combatting 8 most dastardly enemies of excellence
Sometimes external forces get the better of even the best people. However, more often than not, there are factors within your control that you can leverage to live more excellently.
More often than not, the most devious, dangerous, and dastardly enemies of excellence are the internal ones.
In my experience, even the best of us fall victim to some of these some of the time. As human beings, we’re born to make mistakes. However, the key to the glory of our human excellence is to rise above such mistakes and learn to do better next time. What’s even better is when we can shortcut the process and learn from other people’s mistakes.
So ask yourself: which of these common enemies of excellence has a lesson you can apply today so that you’re doing more to live your potential tomorrow?
1. Lack of vision & high hard goals
Do you know what you – deeply and authentically – really want? Is It demanding enough that it will stretch you to grow to become more than you thought possible?
If not, you’re not feeling deep enough nor thinking big enough.
It’s easy to get caught up in all the “noise” from society, with all the things even our well-intentioned parents/teachers/friends/mentors tell us we should want or can do.
However, only you can know what is your heart’s deepest calling. And only you can discover how much you’re actually capable of.
And it’s probably more than anyone has ever imagined.
Now is the time to start imagining it so that you can make it real.
Never forget: the world becomes infinitely better when each of us brings our unique greatness – there is something only you can and will bring forth. It’s up to you to find / make it.
2. Lack of self-discipline
Can you trust yourself to keep the promises you make to yourself?
It’s actually much harder than it seems. Self-esteem is itself a journey and a process, one you must embark upon for the long haul, because self-discipline is crucial for the resilience and grit required to achieve your excellence.
Self-discipline begins with self-knowledge. One of the first and most powerful things you can do to cultivate self-discipline is to catalog your strengths and your weaknesses so that you can leverage your strengths and make preparations for where you are not so strong. Make plans in advance for your known temptations and practice daily to stay your chosen course.
Also, don’t forget to integrate self-discipline with self-care. If and when you stumble, seek out the root cause and the lesson and keep moving forward.
3. Perfectionism & procrastination
Those of us who push ourselves toward high standards are often most prone to fall prey to unhealthy perfectionism. This often keeps us stuck in analysis paralysis and procrastination, instead of the action and iteration necessary to grow into greatness.
This is why I’ve become such a fan of Dan Sullivan’s 80% approach, which is the method of trying to get to 80% completion of any project as quickly as possible. When you set high standards and leverage your unique strengths, sometimes 80% is more than good enough as is. And if not, you can then partner with someone with complementary strengths to complete the next 80 % of what remains, which gets you to 96% with speed, efficiency, flow, and often fun too.
4. Poor physical & mental health
Achieving excellence will require energy, both physical and mental energy ideally working in harmony. So poor health can be one of the biggest blocks to your reaching your goals.
Ultimately, you’re aiming for mind-body integration, so I’ve always loved the ancient martial arts wisdom that teaches: “If the body is weak, start with the mind. If the mind is weak, start with the body.” Start by leveraging your strengths with the goal to grow and improve.
Even 5 minutes of full-body physical exercise followed by 1 minute of mindfulness meditation, or 5 minutes of mindfulness meditation followed by 1 minute of full-body physical exercise (depending on your strengths) can be a potent daily start.
5. Poor relationships
Who is there to support you on your challenging journey to live up to your best self?
As human beings, we are not only the most individual but also the most social of all living organisms. We thrive when we’re in community with others who will accept us as we are while inspiring, driving, and supporting us to be more.
If there’s no one around you who gets what you’re up to, it’s time to level up your inner circle.
6. Poor planning
One of my favorite quotes comes from Dwight D. Eisenhower: “In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable.”
I have always found this insight to be true, even if the “battle” is only with yourself and your circumstances as you work toward a noble, challenging goal.
In the pursuit of excellence, you need to be able to adapt in the moment, because excellence is a long game and situations will arise that you could never have possibly foreseen. That said, the more you do to be prepared for the probabilities and possibilities you can foresee, the better equipped you will be to handle the unexpected and still reach if not exceed your lofty target.
7. Negative thinking
Pessimism, self-doubt, and and/or a negative mindset can undermine motivation and the confidence needed to achieve real excellence.
I’ve found mindfulness to be a proven useful tool to recognize instances of negative thinking, to pause, breathe, release the thought with gratitude for whatever purpose it may have served, and to choose with intention a more positive focus and empowering perspective.
8. Staying comfortable
Once we have achieved any amount of success, it’s easy to want to just rest on our laurels and keep comfortable.
However, while some well-earned relaxation is always worthwhile, true fulfillment comes only when we keep challenging ourselves and keep growing into our purpose.
In our culture that is rife with burnout, many people think that if they could retire, they would just want leisure. However, it turns out that the deepest meaning, satisfaction, and enjoyment in human life come from flow states and self-actualization, which have us “in the zone” but NOT the comfort zone.
Are you ready to rise above?
Is now your time to be living more into your potential for greatness?
If your brand is excellence, then you qualify to be a member at Club Elevate+Aspire+ Even at the complimentary level, we curate membership just for those who are serious about building a high-end, premium, and/or luxury business as part of a life dedicated to seeking all-around excellence.
Learn more and apply today to get your membership started.
K. Joia Houheneka, Luxury Travel Advisor & Excellence Coach
K. Joia Houheneka is on a mission to Elevate Luxury to make luxury synonymous with excellence. She has a background as the owner of a luxury travel agency, Delve Travel. However, much of her current work involves coaching entrepreneurs in her bespoke method that combines luxury business strategy, training in flow states & self-actualization, and growth-focused travel – it is designed for those who are serious about achieving excellence and flourishing across all areas of life. Entrepreneurs with high-end, premium, or luxury businesses are invited to apply for a Complementary Level membership to Club Elevate+Aspire+ to discover more.
