How your standards shape everything
You aren't defined by your potential — you're defined by the lowest standards you can accept.
Look in the mirror. What do you see? If you're growth-oriented, you see potential improvements: losing weight, dressing better, getting a haircut, smiling more. But potential isn't reality. Right now, you're defined by what you've chosen to accept.
We all have minimum standards we won't violate. Whether it's the company we keep, our physical wellbeing, our bank balance, or the state of our room — once things drop below our acceptable threshold, a switch flicks in your brain and kicks you into action.
You might protest: “But I don’t want [insert low standard here]”.
Yet your current reality tells a different story. Your weight, relationships, finances — all exist at levels you've implicitly accepted, whether you admit it or not.
Until you make those current conditions truly unacceptable to yourself, they will persist. Raising your standards means deciding what you will no longer tolerate in your life.
The people who get what they want out of life don’t make their goals ‘nice to haves’, they make them irrefutable standards. This isn't about temporary motivation — it's about shifting identity. When you genuinely raise your standards, change becomes inevitable.
Become someone for whom anything less than achieving your desired state is unacceptable.
Questions to ask yourself to build new standards:
- What areas of my life have I been silently tolerating?
- What would my ideal self find completely unacceptable?
- Where am I making excuses instead of taking action?
- What standards would I need to set to achieve my goals?
- How can I make these standards non-negotiable?
Your life is a perfect reflection of your current standards. Want something different? Set higher standards and refuse to accept anything less.