Personal Commitment to Excellence

I had a friend pass this along to me and it landed with me (actually, made the hairs on my arms stand up - that's saying something to me).

I am the sum total of the genetic endowment with which I came into the world and of all the experiences which have made up my life. Some of them have been good, some bad, but all of them have been mine. My life, my reputation, my influence is the mirror of the choices I have made. If I am not everything I can be, it is because I have not chosen to be more.

I am determined not to live in my past, which I cannot change, or to waste time waiting for the future, which I cannot guarantee, but to live in the emerging reality of the NOW, which is all I have. I cannot do everything, but I can do some things. I certainly cannot do everything well, but I can do some things well. I cannot guarantee that I will win, but I can promise that I will not allow losing to become a habit; and, that if I fail, it will not be a failure of nerve.

So, I will stand tall, feel deeply, think large, and strive mightily, remembering that what I accomplish probably won’t change the course of human history, but what I attempt will create the course of my personal history.

Toward making this declaration a reality, I hereby commit myself.