I want to first share a quote with you from one of my mentors , Tony Robbins:
"Any time you sincerely want to make a change, the first thing you must do is to raise your standards."
I have looked high and low and everywhere in between and the one thing I can’t find is what happened to the standards we use to keep for ourselves.
This country used to pride itself on the fact that we were going to do it better than everyone else. Now, the mentality is more like, I will just do enough to make it work, I will just study enough to pass, I will just work hard enough to win by 1. Then, we complain when things don’t go our way or we feel like we got a bum deal.
How long are we going to keep on blaming outside sources for challenges in our lives? We blame the guy at work for working harder than us. We blame the elements for not getting to work on time, we blame god for the bad breaks, when, in fact, in every single occasion, the one common denominator is us!
You want more? You better be willing to do more. You want to open a business? You better be willing to do whatever is necessary to make it work. You want to be a wonderful parent? You better be ready to do what is hard just as much as what is easy to do.
For all of you out there that at times feel like you want more, want to be more and what to do more, the only thing stopping you is your standards.
Setting the bar low allows you to not expect too much, and then, you won’t get hurt, or better yet, won’t gets your hopes up too high. The only difference between average and great is the standards that we set for ourselves.
If you are a parent, I will ask you this one question: Do you want your kids to be average or great? I don’t believe one of you would ever say average. Then, stop acting that way and raise your standards to the moon.
Now I am not saying you have to play in the Major Leagues or be CEO of a Fortune 500 company -- you don’t. But you do need to be the best anything that you are right now. If you own a small business, take it to the next level. If you are a secretary, what can you do to be the best?
Set the example and the rest will take care of itself. Take a look at some of the challenges you have ever faced and conquered. I promise you, when you look back and examine what made it possible, you will find one thing and one thing only: Every single time you raised your standards to overcome the challenge.
For me, since I was 16, I wanted to run the famous Utica Boilermaker and my standard was, I can’t do that. Well, 20 years later, at the age of 36, I had finally raised my standards to conquer my challenge.
I am proud to say, three years later I am still raising my standards ,as I finished 2 and half minutes faster than the year before.
What will be your challenge that you raise your standards to conquer?
Remember be positive, be real, and live your life In The Zone.
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