I have never been more sure that the time has come to raise the standards for my life. For what I do, how I do it, why I do it, and why I live it. To raise my standards for the people I spend my time with and the person I am becoming.
I believe that accomplishing great things can only come from the values that are important to me. And I believe that those values can only come from the standards that I apply to myself and the world around me.
I want to see — and experience — a world where everyone is constantly aware of and striving to improve their standards.
To improve their standards in the way they:
- Treat eachother
- Treat themselves
- Spend their time
- Spend their money
- Use their voice
- Use their rights
- Use their energy
- Use their motivation
When we lower our standards, we lower our quality of life.
If we accept things the way they happen, and accept things the way they are, and do not apply standards to them, we will wind up being forced to be happy with the lowest possible version of ourselves.
We need to be open to making changes based on our standards, by setting them out today and living by them from this moment onwards. If we can be open to the drastic changes that raising our standards will call for, we can be open to the potential of living a better life.
I don’t want to be a person who is buffeted about by the world.
I don’t want life to happen to me.
I don’t want the world to happen to me.
I don’t want my situation to happen to me.
I want to be the deciding force for change.
To me, that means raising my standards fiercely.
I care deeply about the direction my life goes in.
I care about who I hang out with, and what we talk about, and what we do together, and for each other. I care about the work that I do, and the quality to which I do that work. And caring is the first and crucial step to raising your standards — because if you do not care, your standards cannot be raised, and cannot be kept.
It’s important to care, right now. Care about what happens to you. Care about what impact you have on other people. Care about who you were yesterday, and who you want to be tomorrow.
It is my absolute hope and dearest wish that I can one day look at the actions that I took and the words that I used, and be proud of them, and not feel like I have to defend them in a losing battle.
We feed off our standards. We feed off the standards of the people around us. It’s time to act to ensure those standards are raised. To be responsible for those standards and their implications. To demonstrate to the world the quality of people that we are, through our standards and our dedication to applying those standards.
I want you to answer these questions, to raise your own standards:
How do you expect the people around you to act and behave to you and to their work and to their values: _________________________.
How do you expect yourself to act and behave: _________________________.
What will you no longer tolerate from yourself: _________________________.
What will you no longer tolerate from the people around you: _________________________.
To what standard will you hold your work: _________________________.
To what standard will you hold others’ work: _________________________.
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Originally published at journal.thriveglobal.com