Excellence is often seen as a rare occurrence. Everyone knows the phrase: "it is the exception that proves the rule". We are so used to it, that when we see an exceptional performance or person, maybe doing something we would like to do, we treat them as "exception" to the rule of being average. Wrong. And Dangerous. Exceptions DO NOT prove rules. They DENY them.

1. The exception DOES NOT
prove the rule
Becoming Exceptional in a flat world

2. A popular proverb
says: the
exception proves
the rule.
An effective way to
remain average
and never express
authenticity and
excellence.

3. If we dropped a ball
and this, instead of
falling to the ground,
shot up to the sky, do
you really think
scientists would
shrug and say: “this is
simply the exception
that proves the
rule!”?

4. Until 1954 athletes
believed that
running one mile in
less than 4 minutes
was impossible.
Nobody did it, so
everyone thought
the human limit had
been reached.
No
Exception

5. Image
courtesy
of:
Sura
Nualpradid
freedigitalphotos.net
Then Roger
Bannister showed
up. In 1954 he
went down in
history running the
mile in 3’59’’4. He
had just become
the exception that
DENIED the rule.

6. 6 weeks later an Australian
runner beat his record. A
year later, twenty more
athletes managed to run
the mile under 4 minutes.
Today, good high-school
athletes manage to stay
under 4 minutes. Runners
simply saw that the
exception was the new
rule. The old rule had
become an undesirable
exception.

7. Artists that wow us,
writers that make
us dream,
entrepreneurs
working hard on
something they
deeply believe in,
volunteers that help
those in need are all
exceptions. Who
made the Exception
a rule of life.

8. We do not need to
be exceptional in
everything, and
we do not need to
be different just
for the sake of it.
Being authentic,
though, means
being an
exception– it
means expressing
our uniqueness in
a world that risks
to be flat.

9. Sometimes we do something exceptional
and we treat it like an exception.
“I got lucky”,
“I didn’t expect to make it!”,
“I’m surprised with myself!”,
“It will never happen again!”.
The rule, according to many of us, is that we need
to stay average and avoid expressing our true
potential.
Many unexpressed artists.
A real shame.

10. One day Erik Weihenmayer went
into a restaurant to ask for a job as
a kitchen hand.
“You’ll never make it boy,”
answered the restaurant owner “go
home and let someone take care of
you.” That was the rule. Erik did not
follow it, climbed all the highest
peaks in each continent and
reached the top of Mount Everest.
Oh, I almost forgot…

11. • …. Erik is blind.

12. So stop treating your dreams, you life projects
and your challenges as exceptions.
He has a great job…he knew people
He opened a company …. He was lucky
She is a successful designer…. She has talent
and I don’t.
She wrote a book… I don’t have time for it.
If the average is your rule, you will not have the
change to express your full potential.

13. If you see someone doing something
exceptional, something you would like to do,
don’t treat it as an exception.
Do as any good artist would do.
Imitate her.
Imitate excellent behaviours to become an
exception. So that your personal rule is to give
all you’ve got in something you believe in and to
be authentic.

14. Every dream, challenge, life project of
great value need, to be reached,
“exceptional” actions.
1. Think about your project.
2. Find exceptional behaviours you need.
3. Turn them into habits.
4. Make the exception a rule to live by.

15. Reaching great goals and being excellent
is not matter of “winning that competition” once.
Excellence is a habit.
It is a rule of life we follow every single day.
We can be artist. Or we can follow the rule that
makes us bury our authenticity.

16. The choice is yours.
Have a nice trip

17.
Lorenzo Paoli
Coaching for Highly Performing Habits
Excellence is a habit.
www.novaxia .it
lpaoli@novaxia.it
Milan office - Tel.+39 02 87343236
Pesaro office - Tel. +39 0721 1790232