Wife of BYU-Hawaii president teaches
BYU-Idaho students about excellence

Sister Margaret Wheelwright, wife of Brigham Young University-Hawaii president Steven C. Wheelwright, spoke to Brigham Young University-Idaho students at devotional on Tuesday, January 22 about accepting the challenge to set a higher standard of quality. 

Sister Wheelwright began by reciting a short rhyme: "Good, better, best; never let it rest. Till your good is better, and your better is best." She said this simple phrase summarizes the pursuit of excellence that all should strive for. 

Sister Wheelwright then spoke of attitude and its effect on our daily strivings for excellence. "I believe that the magical mortal ingredient of excellence is actually attitude, or, in other words, will not skill. My mother, who was a wise and caring teacher, often said that as far as her students were concerned, she appreciated ‘I will!' far more than IQ," she said. 

She explained that often our own limits keep us from reaching our own personal level of excellence. "Sometimes we put limits on what we think we can do, but our capacity for excellence is far beyond what we might currently imagine. One important way to begin to see our limitless potential is to surround ourselves with excellence. Excellence is inspiring and contagious," she said.

Citing the stories of Helen Keller and her teacher, Anne Sullivan, Sister Wheelwright reminded students the external circumstances are no match for internal drive and self motivation. We must find within ourselves the ability to achieve excellence beyond what limits others have placed upon us.

To achieve excellence, Sister Wheelwright outlined three imperatives: faith, a sense of mission, and sacrifice. She demonstrated how these three imperatives work together by placing them in three sections in the shape of a triangle. "The supporting or base section," she said, "can represent faith. Living in faith and righteousness is at the core of achieving excellence."

The second imperative is a sense of mission or a will to succeed. "This requires us to set goals. We all hear a lot about goal setting, especially in January, but let me point out that the surest way to miss your mark is to not even have one. By setting that mark just slightly out of reach, slightly beyond our current ability, we learn firsthand that there is always room for improvement. We develop humility as we realize that we can always do a little better, especially with the Lord's help," she said.

The third imperative is sacrifice. Excellence cannot be achieved without hard work and sacrifice. Working hard, however, may not be as great a sacrifice as we think. Hard work is developed through consistent commitment to a cause. "Often, the difference between ‘work' and ‘hard work' is not as much as we might think. Champions don't win by running twice as fast, or scoring twice as many points as their opponents. Usually they win by just a fraction of a second, or by just one extra goal. If we were to work just a little harder, say 15 minutes a day, over the course of a year, we would have worked an extra 91 hours," she said.

By combining these three keys to excellence, we will be able to eventually succeed in whatever we are pursuing. However, Sister Wheelwright emphasized we must remember that "eventually" does not mean "immediate" results.  "We will experience setbacks, but they are one way we learn to improve. Remember that past failures do not predict future successes," she said.

Sister Wheelwright concluded with her testimony and invited students to continue to strive for excellence. "I know that [Christ] lives and that He loves me and He loves you. I know that with His help and direction, our lives can be filled with experiences and opportunities far beyond our mortal abilities. The Atonement is real and blesses each one of us when we allow it to change our hearts and our minds. I know that through His grace He will make our good better and our better best after all we can do. I am so grateful for that knowledge and assurance," she said.

Next week's devotional speaker will be Elder Mervyn B. Arnold, member of the Second Quorum of Seventy of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Devotionals are held every Tuesday at 2 p.m. in the Hart Auditorium with additional seating in the Hinckley Chapel, Taylor Chapel and Kirkham Auditorium.  Devotionals are broadcast on KBYI-FM 100.5 at 2 p.m. and rebroadcast Tuesday at 7 p.m. and Sunday at 5 p.m.