Continued from the previous entry. 2) Perfection: It's a bad word. Humans can never achieve perfection lest we are gods. Perfection and its inability to achieve it results in guilt, self-condemnation and pride. It leads to unhealthy obsession and imbalanced definition of success. Excellence is the redemptive sibling to Perfection. Seek to attain excellence and do your best regardless of others' standards/expectations. Excellence means doing your very best in everything that your hands find to do. Excellence means not sparing resources to enable the best quality of work to be done. Excellence recognises human limitations and respects the efforts. Perfection demands more and more...it is unforgiving and uncompassionate. 3) Joy: It is not happiness. Happiness is a sort of shallow joy that is based on happenings that happen to turn out the way you want it to. Happiness is circumstantial but joy is not. Joy sneaks out right from the heart to brighten up the darkness, warm up the cold-hearted and give hope to the hopeless. Joy is confidence in a Good God regardless of bleak situations coz faith gives reason for joy to manifest. The joy of the Lord is my strength. Anything that is circumstantial always tend to waver and is unstable. You have to set your goals on what you believe in and the deep confidence in what you are called for. Joy will enable you to train when there seems there's no reason to. Joy will pull you out of disappointing times when you fail and flounder in races. Joy will catapult you from the pit into the skies. Joy will keep you focused and supply a strength to go towards the goal. 4) Humility: Talent will not, persistence & determination can bring you to success but humility will KEEP you there! The attitude counts equally, if not more, than the elements that bring you success. Most importantly, you do not want to lose your success overnight. You want to keep it and humility will. It encompasses teachability and an open mind. Jessica Crisp once said to me, "Always enjoy windsurfing and you will always improve." That comes from a 2-time PWA champion and 4th in 2000 Sydney Olympics, with more than a decade of professional and world-class experience. She knows what she's talking, I'm pretty sure. What she also means is that we are never good enough to have finished learning. Once that thirst never ends, we'll always improve. Someone who claims he cannot improve is puffed up, thinking he's good enough and it's boring. Robby Naish also said the same thing...that he's still enjoying the sport as he did 24 years ago. New tricks, new equipmemt, new conditions keep him stoked! He's humble enough to respect the ocean and its complexities. 5) Jesus: The most important element...Without Him, I can do NOTHING!!! Without Him, I am Nothing! Off to Bible Sudy...I miss the presence of God terribly...