What makes some of us pursue excellence while other accept mediocrity?  I have been known to do both.  There are certain areas of my life where anything less than excellence is unacceptable.  There are other areas where "good enough" is good enough.  So what is it that drives us towards excellence and, perhaps more importantly, how can we instill this trait in our children and students? Some would argue that self-esteem plays a large role in the pursuit.  If a person has been told that they are capable of excellence then they are more likely to acheive it.    The reverse is also true.  In education, this is called a self-fulfilling prophesy.  If you openly predict a certain behavior in a child, more often than not, that behavior, whether positive or negative, is likely to surface.  Following this opinion, we need to build the self-esteem of our children and students while vocalizing our high, but realistic, expectations for them.  Others would argue that everyone's definition of excellence is different, making it nearly impossible to evaluate the acheivement thereof.  What is excellence by my standards may be considered pitifully poor (and in regards to cooking and cleaning, I'm sure it is!) by someone else's.  What are some other motivators in the pursuit of excellence?