Stop chasing excellence. Start embodying it.
Most self-help books tell you to set better goals. This one asks a deeper question: what happens when desire, intention, courage, and wisdom align - and how do you get there, one step at a time? The Way to Excellence answers with extraordinary clarity, depth, and heart. Author Shama Viola presents a proven seven-step framework for creating a life of purpose, integrity, and grace - one that bridges the gap between spiritual wisdom and real-world action. The seven steps - Desire, Clear Intention, Impeccability and Vision, Elegance, Courage and Joy, Understanding and Wisdom, and Excellence - form a complete roadmap for turning your deepest aspirations into lived reality. Each step builds on the last, guiding you from identifying what you truly want to becoming the person who can create it. This is not theory. It is lived wisdom. In Part One, Shama shares her own remarkable journey through these steps. From a childhood in an Italian orphanage to her bold leap to America at twenty-four, from years alongside bestselling author Shakti Gawain in Hawaii to working on the estate of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola in Napa Valley, her stories illuminate each step with warmth, vulnerability, and hard-won insight. These are not abstract teachings from a distant guru - they are the real experiences of a teacher who has walked every path she describes. In Part Two, the journey becomes yours. Through guided lessons, reflective exercises, journal prompts, and contemplative practices, you are invited to explore each of the seven steps in your own life - at your own pace, in your own way. Inside you will discover: - A structured seven-step framework for turning desire into meaningful, lasting transformation