This year we've lost some very influential figures, Senator Edward Kennedy and Michael Jackson to name two.  There are two things both of these men who came from very different backgrounds and worked all their lives in completely different fields have in common.  They worked everyday with passion and excellence.  Today I want to examine just the quality of excellence.  Excellence isn't something you see everyday.  Haven't we all experienced shotty work, poor quality, late employees or clients?  We've all talked to customer service people who seem to make mistake after mistake testing our patience.  These experiences will lead you wondering does anyone strive for excellence anymore?  Thankfully, many companies have implemented quality controls systems such as, Six Sigma to try to bring excellence back as the standard.  But, what about us?  How can we implement a plan so that our standard is working toward excellence everyday?  This should be our new standard.  What does it mean to work with excellence?  It means simply, working at your highest level all the time.  Not excepting excuses for why something didn't get done, why you didn't arrive on time, or why the project contained many errors.  Working with excellence means putting in full time effort and working at 100 percent.  Sometimes, excellence means working late to double or even triple check to eliminate errors.  Now before I finish this blog, let me distinguish the difference between perfection and excellence.  Someone who is a perfectionist trys and fails at trying to make everything around them absolutely perfect.  If you are a perfectionist, let me help you by saying you can relax because you live in an imperfect world and you can't make everything perfect.  Mistakes will happen, bottomline.  Now you can breathe.  Working with excellence does not mean you're trying to make everything perfect.  It means you will put all of yourself into whatever you're doing so that even if there are mistake it isn't because you didn't try your best.  It means giving your work your all, then you can be proud of your accomplishments.  Also, one last thing, remember this is a work in progress.  Give yourself time to have fun and enjoy life so that when you are working you won't feel burned out.  Therefore, whatever you're doing, do it with excellence.