We hear it all the time. Push harder. Raise your standards. As Tony Robbins says, “You don’t get what you want, you get your standards.” If you are out of shape, not doing so well financially, don’t have your ideal intimate relationship, your business is not where you want it to be… those are all a reflection of your standards.
Ok, so if all I have to do is raise my standards, why does this approach rarely work? And more importantly how do I actually raise my standards?
Your standards are similar to your values or how much heart you put into what you are doing. On a more tangible level they are simply a reflection of your rituals. And your rituals are simply the actions you take on a day to day basis. So if you want to raise your standards all you need to do is reverse engineer the new outcome you want and dial up the rituals you take action on a daily basis in terms of quantity, intensity or both.
Here’s an example: Say you want to increase your income from $50,000/year to $80,000/year. In other words you want your new standard to be $80,000/year. First answer a few questions to get emotional leverage on yourself to make the change?
Why MUST you increase your income? What will it mean for you and others you love?
What has it cost you to be where you are? What will it cost you in the future if you don’t raise it? 1 year from now? 5 years from now? 20 years from now? At the end of your life looking back?
Now figure out your numbers. What specifically do you need to do each and every single day to hit this new outcome. In order to do something we haven’t done before we must become someone we haven’t been. If you know you must make 50 sales calls or run ‘x’ amount of ads to make one sale. What is the new number you must hit? That new number is your new daily ritual for the new standard you have in that area of your life! Remember you can also raise your standards just by deepening the intensity and focus you put into the activity. Most of the time people dabble and go through the motions thinking they will get the result. Mastery comes from repetition + deep practice!
It’s the same strategy Michael Jordan used to win his second three titles in row! He hit the gym (more sessions, more reps, more weight, more intensity) and spent more time on the basketball court (more hours, made 1000 shots per day, more dribbling). Or if you were training for the Olympics you’d have a program that progressively increased the demands on you to perform at higher and higher levels. Apply that to each area of your life and see how magnificent you can make it!
You can also apply this same strategy to your body, growing your business, your intimate relationship etc. Some are harder than others to quantify and it can get confusing on what/how much to measure as benchmarks of success. The key is to determine the one metric that is in your control that you can track in the area of your life you want raise your standards. The more you measure and track the right thing the more you will make it better.
I know it sounds daunting and an overwhelming task to undertake, especially if you’re an overachiever working on being your best in multiple areas of your life. The cool thing is that you start to build momentum and you get over the initial hump the return on investment for the energy you put in and the different areas start to propel one another forward becoming a positive success cycle.
What are your standards for each area of your life in 2019? What is the ONE new ritual that you must focus and take action on every single day? Take inventory of how many times you take action each day and notice the results you are getting.
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