For those of you who are new here, I’m Kayleigh O’Keefe, the Founder of Soul Excellence Publishing where we help leaders, executives, and entrepreneurs share their wisdom, engage the culture, and leave a legacy by publishing bestselling books. You can learn more about our leadership books here.
I believe that wisdom – the discernment of what is true, right, or lasting – is yearning to be practiced in our present time where hot takes and predetermined narratives reign supreme.
I also believe that wisdom is an essential component of leadership. In these Wednesday Wisdom emails, I seek to bring you ideas and concepts that invite you to go deeper within and explore what is true, right, and lasting so that you can continue to lead authentically and fulfill your purpose in this lifetime.
Now that the serious part is out of the way, let’s have some fun!
Let’s kick our weekly dose of wisdom with an exploration of virtues. I believe that by exploring the universal virtues that speak to our soul we are reconnecting to universal truth and wisdom.
So what, exactly, are virtues?
According to the Virtues Project’s website: “Virtues are the very meaning and purpose of our lives, the content of our character and the truest expression of our souls. For people of all cultures, ethnicities and beliefs, they are the essence of authentic success.
Virtue means power, strength, inner quality. Virtues are the content of our character, the elements of the human spirit. They grow stronger whenever we use them.”
I love this.
Last year I was introduced to The Virtues Project, and it changed my life. It helped me go deeper than my obsession with values which are ever-changing and cultural (e.g. I used to value achievement; now I value connection more) and shift my mind to focus on that which is immutable, universal.
Last week I went through a simple exercise where I sorted the 100 virtues cards that I own into three piles – 1. those that I felt like I embodied, 2. those that didn’t speak to me, and3. those that I aspired to cultivate. (You can grab your own set of Virtues Cards here: https://virtuesshop.com/)
8 of them instantly spoke to my heart. Many of them I long to cultivate and bring out within in! Over the next few weeks I’ll share the ones that spoke to me as an invitation to see what speaks to you.
The first virtue that resonated with me – could it be any other? – was EXCELLENCE.
“Excellence is giving our very best to any task we do and any relationships we have. Within us are many possibilities….Excellence is effort guided by a noble purpose.”
Excellence is about being a lifelong learning and fulfilling our true possibilities.
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I love this so much. Soul Excellence as a concept came to me in an immersion with my mentor. It just hit me in our conversation. And now it all makes so much sense. Of course! I often think. What else could this work be called?
I used to think that EXCELLENCE was about hard work, discipline, repetition, and commitment. It’s true that this is part of mastering anything that we do. But the card reminds us that one of the practices of EXCELLENCE is “I work with love.”
I’m being asked by a current mentor to move out of my head – to operate from my throat (expression) and my heart (love). This feels like the missing ingredient – the superpower- to bring out the virtue of Excellence even more strongly! The intention of our desire for EXCELLENCE matters, and the love that we pour into this intention is the X-factor.
What does EXCELLENCE mean to you?
How do you bring out EXCELLENCE in yourself – and your teams?
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