It's been years since the book A Passion for Excellence (by Tom Peters and Nancy Austin) was first published. This book talks about outstanding performance in the context of business organizations.

But if you read closely and ponder on the principles taught in it, you'll realize that the principles apply as well to life outside business — to ordinary folks you encounter in the streets and in your own neighborhood.

The authors discuss three "secrets" of long-term excellence: superior customer service, constant innovation, and full use of the abilities of every employee. If we translate the so-called secrets to the non-business environment where most of us are, "superior customer service" becomes superior service to friends and neighbors (and even strangers), "constant innovation" becomes non-stop search for new ways to do good things for others, and "full use of the abilities of every employee" becomes individual desire to bring out the best in oneself.

One of the several ideas discussed in the book that is worth reflecting on is this: outstanding performance, whether in an organization or in everyday life, is the sum total of a thousand tiny things done a little bit better. This idea should teach us the value of giving our best in every little task we put our hands into, day in and day out.

Superb performance need not come out of a grand design. It can result from an accumulation of simple small wins. It can result from our best efforts in different roles we perform each day. It can result from being the best father, the best mother, the best brother, the best sister, the best neighbor, the best citizen, the best pedestrian, the best commuter, the best whatever we can individually achieve.

But we couldn't hope to be the best in our little corner of the world unless there's the desire to excel. We shouldn't be contented with doing the same thing exactly the same way all the time. Instead, we should constantly seek to improve how we do the many things we normally do. For instance, we can look for new ways to make our "good morning" greeting a little more pleasant each day. Or improve on the way we clean the house, Or to outshine ourselves in being courteous to other people. Or to have better use of our time. The possibilities are endless.

We can (and should) learn to condition our thinking in the following way: "The thousand tiny things I can do very well will result in big things for me." When we succeed in our efforts to achieve small wins consistently, we bring out the champion living inside all of us.