Excellence means the final result carries less evidence of compromise.

Every piece of work involves compromises, and the question is how visible they are in the finished thing. Excellent work has usually had the same compromises and then absorbed them, rearranged around them, or gone back and removed them, so the result does not carry the marks of where things were difficult. Ordinary work shows every place where someone gave up.

Look at your finished work and find where a compromise is still visible. Ask whether you could hide it, fix it, or design around it. That final adjustment is often what separates something acceptable from something good.