Excellence In All We Do...Little Things Make Big Things Happen

The third and final core value of the Air Force is “Excellence In All We Do”.  When I think of excellence I am reminded of one of my favorite role models 10 time NCAA Basketball Champion Coach John Wooden.  My admiration for him goes beyond his success on the basketball court to include his entire approach to life on and off the court.  He coached and practiced excellence in all he did.  Practices began and ended at specific times because he believed in maintaining discipline and a balanced schedule to ensure time for things such as family.  So focused on detail that he taught how to properly wear your basketball socks to prevent the possibility of blisters.  With a keen eye on such meticulous detail Coach Wooden believed in making “each day a masterpiece” and exemplified the core value excellence in all we do.

When basic military training was beginning and our group of 48 young men in Flight 475 were being introduced to the core values I thought of leaders like Coach Wooden and how high of a standard excellence is to live up to.  The first couple of weeks it would be safe to say our flight struggled to obtain excellence as we went through what many call the “forming, storming, norming and performing” cycle that describes how new groups behave when coming together.  However, just like a runner pushes past that mental wall to get that extra mile, or refuse to hit the snooze button on a Saturday morning to go train we kept pushing forward.  We were not without our struggles, or day to day failures, but who isn’t?  Coach Wooden believed “Failure is not fatal, but failure to change might be” and so what did we do?  We learned from our mistakes, we developed, we changed and each found our roles on the team and strove for excellence in those roles daily.  The result?  Flight 475 walked away with the following honors.

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• Beast Excellence:  Awarded to the winning zone of a 5 day outdoor simulated deployment exercise between all squadrons.
• Warrior Flight:  Awarded to flights achieving a point threshold recognizing achievements in military training over the span of 8 weeks (the only Warrior flight out of all squadrons)
•  7 Honor Graduates:  Awarded to individual Airman who graduate in the top 10% of all graduates
•  Honor Flight:  Awarded to the best flight in their graduating class

It was very exciting to be a part of this and even more excited in how we did it.  We paid attention to the little details like reading directions, keeping our arms straight while marching and keeping our bearing when asked questions.  This is exciting because it gives us all the potential to be excellent in all we do by doing the little things with excellence.  Coach Wooden says it best, “It’s the little details that are vital. Little things make big things happen“.  What is your big thing and what little things are keeping you from it?

Do not be afraid of failing when striving for excellence, but also do not be afraid to strive. 

I triple dog dare you J.

Miles

P.S.  Thank you everybody for your support.  I am still collecting donations for the cause in Haiti with Ncompass.  If you have been following this for a while and feel moved to support more read over how to donate here: http://miles-dodge.blogspot.com/2012/05/one-thought-away.html.



Sources
*http://www.littlethingsmatter.com/blog/2010/06/08/committed-to-excellence-a-tribute-to-john-wooden/