Excellence

Excellence is the ability to continually strive toward an enhanced state of being. The Greek word Areté is commonly translated to mean excellence or virtue; however, for the Greeks, Areté was not a static condition. It is a process of developing excellence, a striving to be one’s better self.

Areté, as a state of mind, is a feeling of ever-increasing possibility — of being open to change, curious, and eager to advance while remaining aware of our current limitations. This is a feeling of self-enhancement, becoming more without a feeling of not being enough. When we hold self-enhancement as our inner compass, we can act with decorum and courage — with uprightness without arrogance.

Stories and analogy are one way we can acquire the attributes required to develop excellence and virtue. Through the revealed history of other people’s lives, we can apprehend our own striving for living life in excellence. Throughout history, from tales of the Bhagavad Gita, Gilgamesh, and Homer to contemporary stories of personal triumph, exemplars for attaining Areté can show us how others, throughout the ages, have dealt with the challenges of living life with excellence.

Phronimos integrates the aspiration of Areté with twenty-first-century tools for self-enhancement. The tools recently developed in the field of positive psychology can help us attain the ancient goal of Areté in a way that is relevant to our place and time. Through developing positive emotions, focusing on goals tied to purpose, and developing our self-efficacy, we can begin to connect to our capacity to act from a place of Areté.