When I was a young boy, I had a fascination with the Civil War. Now, you could say that the fascination was borne more out of an aesthetic of the Civil War rather than a real scholar’s captivation with a particular corner of history. None-the-less, I watched the Ken Burns documentary with fascination, thumbed through books absorbing the pictures and donned the uniform re-enacting in the backyard epic clashes between the Federal troops and the Army of Northern Virginia. As part of this fascination, I convinced my parents to take me to Civil War re-enactments and to peruse Flea Markets with Civil War memorabilia. One particular artifact that I wanted to buy, but never did, was a book about Civil War tactics.
Tactics are kinetic. They denote action. Flowing from strategy, tactics are the specific techniques that are used to accomplish a mission. In my imaginary recreation of the Civil War, I would charge, retreat, attack from standing, kneeling, and prone. As a kid actively involved in backyard combat, this book fascinated me because I wanted to immerse myself in the techniques employed by the venerated Generals of the era. Having a solid understanding of tactics would illuminate the art of 19th century battle and provide a strategic advantage against my imaginary, backyard foe.
With this context in mind, as we think about excellence, we can draw on the idea of tactics to glean some helpful lessons for life. We discussed in the last two posts if we are to walk our path of life with excellence it is helpful to view this endeavor in the context of this mission, strategy, tactics paradigm.
We saw how it is important to have a clear understanding of our mission; that is walking the path of excellence. However, to take a nebulous idea and turn it into kinetic action, we need to follow mission with a strategy or a plan. That plan begins with clarity and definition. Excellence is more than just something better than good or great. Excellence is the highest quality of a thing both in a material and a moral sense. Excellence itself is a reflection of the divine character. And if the transcendentals of truth, goodness, and beauty are divinely originating, fundamental characteristics of all things – at least in their ideal state. Then to the extent that we recognize, elevate, and pursue truth, goodness, and beauty we encounter excellence.
Notice the kinetic words – the verbs. These are the excellence tactics.
1. Recognize – The first of the tactics is to recognize truth, goodness, and beauty. This is both an acknowledgement and also an identification. Pursuing excellence begins with knowing the transcendentals and beginning to recognize them in our lives and in what we encounter.
2. Elevate – The second of the tactics is to elevate truth, goodness, and beauty. It means that this is the standard by which everything is judged. In a world that is filled by lies, evil, and ugliness, excellence means that when we recognize the transcendentals, we lift them up as the ideal.
3. Pursue – The final of the tactics is to pursue truth, goodness, and beauty. Excellence is orienting our lives and decisions around these characteristics. They serve as a series of questions that we can as ourselves as we make daily decisions on the path.
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