Football is often said to be a game of inches. And the same is true with life; the difference between winning and losing is so small. It’s rarely found in the big things. Rather it’s a compilation of many small things that collectively compound. 

If you truly want to separate yourself, find the inches … the seconds … the small habits.

Don’t cheat yourself of that extra rep in the gym when you still have more in the tank. Go to bed early. Make your bed. Dust the corners. 

Engage in conversation with someone on an elevator. Smile at someone who might need a bright spot in their day. Genuinely compliment the bus driver. 

Set your cell phone down at lunch. Buy a stranger’s coffee. Call someone on the phone when texting would be easier. Show up to work on time … and actually work while you’re at work. Look people in the eye when they’re talking to you, and give others the gift of your attention.

As life is in the details, do everything -– especially the things only you may notice -– with an intentional heart of excellence. 

Author John Gardner once wrote, “The society which scorns excellence in plumbing because plumbing is a humble activity and tolerates shoddiness in philosophy because it is an exalted activity will have neither good plumbing nor good philosophy. Neither its pipes nor its theories will hold water.”

Relentlessly pursue excellence in all areas of your life. Then you will slowly witness a not-so-strange thing occur: like dominos, excellence in one area of life naturally begets excellence in another aspect. And you’ll likely positively affect your surrounding environment.

For you see, though pursuing the daily habit of getting better is noteworthy, pursuing Christlikeness and conformity to His perfect will and purposes is the goal for any Christian.

It’s that heart and environment that fixates first on Christ and seeing the needs of others that magnetically finds itself blessed in the process. After all, Scripture confirms this reality in the Book of Matthew (6:33), “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.”