The Way to Excellence

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
• Practical exercises for gaining clarity on what you truly want — and why it matters
• Tools for cultivating elegance, courage, and joy in your everyday choices
• Guided reflections designed for career transitions, creative projects, relationships, and personal growth
• A creative vision board process and movement meditations to deepen your practice
• A complete seven-lesson workbook for hands-on personal transformation

About the Author: Shama Viola has spent over four decades studying human potential and guiding others toward transformation. She has trained with pioneers including Shakti Gawain and Byron Katie, lived for over two decades in the internationally recognized Damanhur spiritual community in Italy, and taught courses in personal mastery to students around the world. The Excellence Blueprint — the course that inspired this book — has helped hundreds of participants create profound shifts in their lives. This book distills that lifetime of wisdom into a framework anyone can follow.

Whether you are navigating a major life transition, launching a creative vision, or simply seeking to bring more awareness and intention to your daily choices, this book offers a practical and soulful path forward.

Excellence is not something you chase. It is something you choose to become.

Shama Viola is an Italian-born author, artist, teacher, and spiritual guide whose life has been a testament to the transformative power of desire, courage, and conscious living.Born in Italy, Shama's early years were shaped by challenge and resilience. At twenty-four, she made the bold decision to leave her homeland for America, carrying little more than a fierce longing for freedom and self-expression. What followed was a remarkable journey that took her from bohemian life in California to working on the estate of legendary filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola in Napa Valley, and eventually into a deep friendship and creative partnership with bestselling author Shakti Gawain, with whom she co-led retreats in Kauai, Hawaii.Since the 1970s, Shama has immersed herself in the study of human potential and spiritual growth. She trained extensively with Hal and Sidra Stone as a Voice Dialogue facilitator-a modality she loved so deeply that she brought it to Italy in 1991, traveling and teaching throughout the country before leaving the work in the hands of trained assistants, one of whom established the Voice Dialogue School in Bologna. She also trained with Byron Katie, introducing The Work to Italian audiences.In 2001, what was meant to be a brief visit to the Federation of Damanhur in Italy became a permanent homecoming. For over two decades, Shama has lived as a citizen of this internationally recognized spiritual community, where she serves as an ambassador and teaches courses in divination, past lives, inner personalities, dreams, and personal transformation. She is the creator of the Bral Talej Divination Cards, developed with the assistance of Damanhur's founder, Oberto "Falco" Airaudi.The Way to Excellence distills a lifetime of lived wisdom into a seven-step framework for personal and professional mastery-a process she first encountered through the teachings of Lazaris and has spent decades embodying. Shama continues to teach and travel internationally, sharing her gifts with warmth, authenticity, and an unwavering commitment to helping others unlock their highest potential.