Becoming An Excellent Christian: 17 Attributes That Ensures Excellent Performance

In the words of a wise man, “we are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, therefore, is not an act but a habit.”

Building on the above saying, excellence is thus a product of repeated of properly executed action or set of actions. Excellence means standing out in what you do. It does not come by prayer or laying of hands but by working and developing the right set of attitudes. Excellence at anything does not come overnight also but is developed over time through sound and right attitudes. God will only avail you of opportunities to acquire the necessary attributes that equips you for excellent performance but it is in your hands to utilize such opportunities.

For a Christian, it takes both spiritual, practical and physical attributes and actions to build one’s excellence potential. I have therefore outlined seventeen (17) needful attributes that will improve your ability to be excellent in anything you undertake as a Christian. To achieve excellence, you must;

1.      Be A Christian Indeed.
A Christian who aims to achieve excellence in everything he does most importantly must be a Christian (Christ-like) indeed - in his attitude to work, business, home and relationship with other people. Excellence is all about attitude best of which a clearly mentioned in several portions of the Bible.

Diligence, hardwork, integrity, proper time use and other excellence-geared attributes are strongly taught all through the Bible. Proverbs 6:6-9, 13:4; 20:4, 12:24; 22:29, Psalm 90:12, Ecclesiastes 3:1-8 and 2Thessalonians 3:10 are few of such Bible passages teaching on attitudes that will make you excellent.

A believer aiming at excellence must be given to obedience, holiness and total submission to God. Total obedience to God’s word and instructions is cardinal to Christian’s success. King Saul’s excellence was terminated because of his disobedience (1 Samuel 15:22-23). Same was the case of Samson. It was David’s failure to obey God’s word in the matter of Barsheba (Uriah’s wife) that introduced reproach to the excellence he achieved.


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So if you must achieve excellent results, then you must be a true Christian, chaste and holy in all you do because our God is holy. To gain His support in what we do, we must be holy. Prophet Habakuk talking about God has this to say;

Thou art of purer eyes than to behold evil, and canst not look on iniquity: wherefore lookest thou upon them that deal treacherously, and holdest thy tongue when the wicked devoureth the man that is more righteous than he?- Habakuk 1:13

2.      Develop Love and Enthusiasm for What You Do – 1 Corinthians 13:1-4.

When we are in love with what we do, we cherish and work at bringing out the best out of it. A love for your job, career or business would mean that you will do your best to make it the best. You will always have it in mind and its success becomes your greatest priority. When love disappears, it becomes a struggle to keep up with the daily requirements demanded of you. Absence of love kills enthusiasm.

It is same in spiritual matters. When you are in love with God then the concerns of heaven becomes your top priority motivating you to search out ways to serve God better and save more lives. Which of course puts you on the right path for spiritual excellence.

No wonder Jesus had to ask Peter if he loves Him in John 21:15-17, because without such love, it will be difficult to achieve excellence in the ministry Jesus was handing over to him.

Many children perform poorly in subjects they hate or ones they hate the subject teacher. Not necessarily because they lack the ability to understand the subject. So there is therefore a strong correlation between love and success.

3.      Know Your Purpose

Everyone Christian has specific purpose and assignment(s) to execute. That is his call. For any believer to perform excellently to the glory of God, he must know what God expects of him. That was the secret of Paul’s success in life and ministry (Acts 26:13-16; 9:3-7, 13-16).
 
When purpose is not known, abuse becomes inevitable. A man ignorant of his life’s purpose abuses and wastes everything life affords him. If you do not know or have any purpose for your life then there will be nothing to work to excel at. When purpose is misplaced or wrongly prioritized, a person is seen neglecting the things that matter for less important things and so might not achieve excellence. Man, know yourself. Know why you are on earth and apply yourself to it rigorously to it.
 
4.      Have Clear Goal(s)
Can you imagine people playing football without having a goal post? Running up and down the field with the ball and not scoring goals. To achieve purpose, worthwhile and right goals must be set. Excellence often exists because there is a target in focus. You will therefore need clear-cut goals to keep you focused as work to achieve excellence.

For a Christian, excellence is achieved when heaven-ordained lofty goals are accomplished. Such goals sometimes will seem unachievable to the ordinary mind (1 Corinthians 9:24-28, 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Timothy 4:7). Beloved, let this be deeply built in your heart; no goals, no excellence.

5.      Be Positively, actively and productively engage the mind

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he:…”  - Proverbs 23:7.

Keep thy heart with all diligence; for out of it are the issues of life. – Proverbs 4:23

It is the abundance of a man’s heart that makes him great or keeps him a mediocre. The human mind is a great goldmine which anyone who desires excellence in anything must engage positively. Your perception of who you are and what you can do or be goes a long way in determining the magnitude of success you can reach. Your thoughts and actions are strongly connected. It is your thoughts that determine your actions (Mt 12:32… out of the abundance of the heart….), and your actions and inactions determine the height you can reach. So if you think you cannot achieve excellence then it will be so for you because it will begin to manifest in your actions.

If you must achieve excellence, you must think up solutions to daunting challenges.  You must think up how to use resources around you better than others. You must believe fully in your goals, and that you can do it. You should have a strong faith in your idea, your capabilities and yourself.

6.      Do the “extras”

Extraordinary performance and achievements which is what excellence is all about comes when extra efforts are added to ordinary measures. Excellence is achieved when ordinary things are done extraordinarily. Failure to do the extra leaves you at the ordinary level. Failure to go the extra mile in acquiring and improving on knowledge, prayer, developing business strategies, and other areas of your life will surely undermine your quest for excellence.

Doing the extra might sometimes involve taking some risks. Esther achieved success in the area of delivering her people from the evil plan of Haman, which was an excellent feat because she went the extra mile.  Moses became the first man to have a view of God physically because he went the extra mile in his relationship with God (Exodus 33:17-23).

7.      Be Humble (Psalm 10:7, Proverbs 29:23, Jeremiah 13:18, Matthew 18:4; 23:12)

Humility makes you reachable both by men and God. Pride keeps you away from people who would be useful to your excellence process. A proud man will not be humble enough to learn from those he should or even from his mistakes. He hardly accepts his mistake or asks questions. It was Pharaoh’s refusal to humble himself before God that destroyed him (Exodus10:3).

Proverbs 29:23 -  A man's pride shall bring him low: but honour shall uphold the humble in spirit.

 

8.       Work Hard (Proverbs 6:6-11)

If you must become excellent in anything, you must not be lazy. Laziness would mean unwillingness to work. The easiest way to fail in life is to be lazy. “No man who is excellently lazy can achieve excellence in any other thing except failure”. Put in another way, “An excellently lazy man will end up a great failure”.

For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat – 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

If you must become excellent in anything then, you must not be lazy. For a believer, excellence demands work physically, mentally and spiritually.

9.      Don’t Shy Away from Challenges

Many do shy away from challenges and responsibilities not understanding that they hold so much opportunity for excellence. For as long as the whole army of Israel shied away from confronting Goliath, they dwelled in mediocrity. The one that became excellent was the one that confronted and defeated him.
Every Goliath is surmountable and you can’t overcome them by running but by confronting them head on. Stop shying away from challenges. Life is full of them. Running from them means you will keep running until you run out of the world because they won’t end.

10.       Always Be Willing To Learn and Improve

“Knowledge is power.” This is a saying anyone that hopes to hit excellence must put to work. Knowledge is acquired by accessing and assimilating information. It is information acquired and practiced that makes engineer, doctor and professionals in various fields.
To be an excellent Christian, you must acquire and utilize information to improve your knowledge base. Added to every other needful information, your knowledge of the word of God is also very important. It strengthens your faith which sustains you in the face of challenges. You therefore need to load yourself with lots of it.
11.  Must Have Self Discipline
Self- discipline, the ability to do what is necessary or sensible without needing to be urged by somebody else, is one of the essentials for success. It is the ability to make yourself do something beneficial but seemingly difficult or unpleasant Self discipline is the strength or will to force yourself to pay the price for success - doing what ordinarily, you would not like to do, going the extra mile, fighting and winning the lonely battle with yourself. It means training yourself not to take certain pleasurable actions even when they are desirable; though they may not constitute sinful acts but are not the best for you at that instance.

Life is full of options and it is self-discipline that helps you to make better choices and abide by them. A person that lacks self discipline will find it difficult to properly train and tune himself for excellence.
Hebrew 12:11 - “No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those trained by it” (NIV).

12.       Commitment & Diligence

Lack of commitment is one factor that works against achieving excellence. When a person is not committed to what he does, he does it anyhow and things done anyhow always lack the touch of excellence. For excellence to be achieved, there must be due diligence and thoroughness in what we do. You don’t dress anyhow, speak anyhow, do your business anyhow, etc and expect to come out excellently. Diligence and commitment gives what you do a touch of class (excellence).

13.       Right Use of Time

A man who dares waste one hour of time has not discovered the value of life. - Charles Darwin
Life runs on time. Time is therefore a priceless commodity of which everybody has an equal amount. It is a non-renewable resource which God freely gave us. Yet, what you do with it can determine whether you succeed or fail in life (whether you become excellent or a mediocre). Well-managed time entails optimizing the use of every tick of the clock to your benefit, understanding that misusing a second of the 86,400 seconds in a day might truncate your vision. Optimal use of time is not about being busy but being productively busy. Examples are Mary and Martha (Luke 10:38-42). Excellence is often a product of rightly invested time.

14.       Right Use Criticism (Feedbacks)

You should learn to take in people’s critiism of you. It is natural not to find faults in oneself. As such, people hardly see any wrong in their actions. Many people trust their judgments and decisions. Even when they make mistakes, they will hardly accept such mistakes and as such ridicule themselves. Moses is an example of a man who ran his leadership by utilizing feedbacks (Exodus 18:13-26).
 
Best performing organizations thrives on effective use of feedbacks they receive from people. They serve as mirror to show you parts of you that you can see and point out the necessary adjustment you need to make to your dressing. 

15.       Good Visionary Ability 

Where there is no vision, the people perish - Proverbs 29:18
Vision means the ability to anticipate possible future events and developments. Ability to envisage the possible effects of events (societal, governmental and economic) will in no little way help you fashion out the best of strategies to pursue your life endeavours.

This helps you plan adequately. It makes you proactive rather than reactive to situations. You will not have to resort to several trial and error experiments before overcoming circumstances and challenges especially those that are products of long-term events and policies. Men who come tops in excellence are often more proactive than reactive.

Your vision helps you to set goals – short-term and long-term. And setting goals (or targets) is one of the necessary inputs that ensure success.

16.       Have Integrity

A man without integrity cannot be trusted. Excellence is not achieved in isolation of other people. They will be there as clients and customers, followers or staff, friends and family, etc. If people can’t trust you then you can achieve excellence because they are part of the rungs of the “Excellence Ladder”

17.       Be Courageous (Jos. 1:6,9,18)

The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy - Martin Luther King, Jr.

Excellent feats take courage to perform and reach. They are often like climbing mountains which demands so much tenacity and courage. When God told Joshua severally to be courageous, He understood better than Joshua the challenges the latter was going to face in bringing the children of Israel into Canaan.

A man of excellence is one that does not throw in the towel easily. He might fail a number of times but always believes he should try again. When courage is missing in a man’s life, he surrenders to the least of challenges that comes his way and you can be sure that the pathway to excellence is one full of challenges which a man without courage cannot go.

Conclusion

Our God is a God of excellence and created man in that image of been excellent in what we do. As believers, if we imbibe and align ourselves with the right attitudes for success then we will be outstanding in everything we do because that is who God created us to be - believers that stand out in excellence.