One of my coaches, growing up, taught what it means to create new standards in life. Where most track coaches were used to making between $30,000 and $50,000 that I had been around, this track coach was offered a job for $80,000.
You have to learn to establish new life standards because you rarely get more than you expect. It's not about what you want in life; it's about what you will tolerate.
If you tolerate people treating you poorly, then the chances are they will, but when you set specific standards for your life, you immediately recognize when those standards are not being met.
“Set the standard! Stop expecting others to show you love, acceptance, commitment, & respect when you don’t even show that to yourself.” ― Steve Maraboli
Want to Create New Standards in Your Life? What Do You Tolerate?
Think through your life and begin to ask what things you will tolerate. Everyone has an amount of money that they will not tolerate being paid. For some people, its minimum wage, for others, is $50,000, and some people making $1M/month would be embarrassing for them. You must know what you tolerate?
- How do you tolerate people treating you?
- Where will you tolerate living?
- Who will you tolerate living around?
- How much will you tolerate making?
- How little will you tolerate reading?
The list could go on and on. You may have never thought about many of these things, but you have standards in your life. You have established a desire that says you want to live in a specific neighborhood, but you will tolerate living in many lesser ones.
Now imagine what could happen if you raise your standards in every area of your life. If one day you decide that you no longer accept just getting by. You no longer take being walked on and disrespected for no reason. As you raise your standards, you make it clear to people around you without using words that you have high standards for yourself and others.
For some people, its minimum wage, for others, is $50,000, and some people making $1 month would be embarrassing for them. You must know what you tolerate?
Choose Habits That Will Create a New Standard
The key is having high standards for yourself. Nothing will work if you begin to expect more from others than you expect from yourself. You can't expect others to treat you with respect, but you don't want to treat others with that same respect.
It's not enough to just say that you have this new high standard. Anyone can say, "I refuse to make less than $100,000 because you have to bring that type of value to the market place. That is where habits come into play. What can you do to increase your value daily?
- Work on Your Business
- Read Daily
- Take Online Courses
- Check Phone Less
As an example, you could adopt the four habits above. When it comes to working on your business, that will allow you to put your new skills your learning into play and build more experience. Reading and online courses would allow you to keep learning and growing your skills.
Get Specific With Your Habits to Create New Standards
Then what you want to do is begin to create specific statements that will help you stick with these new standards. It's not enough to say you want to check your phone less.
You will never put your phone in the room you're working in, and you will only look at your phone before 10 AM and after 6 PM. You will also set time limits on apps to make sure you don't spend too much time on your phone.
For Reading Daily, you will say that you will read for 30 minutes a day, starting at 7 AM. You will only read books that directly help you improve your value in the marketplace.
Here is the point, you want to be specific so that your habits provide instructions for this new way of living. You will be creating a new standard for how you live your life because you will have simple rules to follow.
You will know what time you read and what you are allowed to use your phone. That leaves less to chance or having to think about what to do in the morning.
The key is having high standards for yourself. Nothing will work if you begin to expect more from others than you expect from yourself.
Create a New Standard By Killing Bad Habits
When most people want to change their lives, they think about creating new habits but often don't think about killing bad habits.
Killing negative habits may be the most productive way to move forward. Positive habits help to move forward, but negative habits serve as self-made obstacles.
You could be trying to set new standards for the amount of money you want to make. Let's say you're close to getting there, and then you have a significant health issue from not taking care of yourself. That is an excellent example of your negative habits getting in the way.
To make sure that this does not happen to you, identify some of your negative habits, and start creating specific practices around the things you need to change.
When most people want to change their lives, they think about creating new habits but often don't think about killing bad habits.
When You Create New Standards You Must Increase Your Willpower
When you create these statements to live by, a byproduct is an increase in your willpower. It forces you to increase your willpower because you begin to have a dialogue in your mind when making choices.
Gone are the days where you take action based on how you feel in the moment. You will begin to run things through the lens of your new statements.
You want to build your willpower because the more durable it is, the more you can stick to being the person you want to be. Willpower is a muscle, and you must work that muscle if you want it to be healthy.
When you create these statements to live by, a byproduct is an increase in your will power. It forces you to increase your willpower because you begin to have a dialogue in your mind when making choices.
Conclusion
- Raise your standards and expectations
- Find habits that support those new standards
- Create specific statements for those habits
- Do the same for the negative habits that hold you back
- Watch your willpower build when you make the right choices
None of this has to be complicated, but it's not easy either. When you are tempted to take the easy way out or lower your expectations, it's not easy. You have to keep fighting for what you want the most in your life. If you tolerate anything less, life will gladly hand you that.