“We don’t rise to the level of our expectations; we fall to the level of our training.”― Archilochus

To paraphrase the Greek poet Archilochus, ” We don’t rise to the level of our goals or wishes; we rise to the level of our standards.” Our standard determines what we are willing to tolerate and the expectations we hope to live by. One of the standards I have set for myself in the past 2-3 years is doing the following daily: Meditate, write on this blog and exercise. I have tried to uphold that standard for myself daily, but they have become non-negotiables. It took a while to get to this level of consistency, but everything is possible with determination, persistence and focus. We get what we tolerate in life, and our standards are a benchmark onto which the world will treat us.

To change your standard like any other worthwhile long-term goal, you need to first decide, commit and execute relentlessly daily. As the saying goes, you don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great. Everyone starts from somewhere, and the major reason we call the greats “great” is that they continue to show up over a long period despite the challenges. We are always announcing how we want to be treated by how we treat ourselves. If you want people to value your time, you must first respect your time boundaries before others will.

Goals vs Standards

Goals start out as thoughts. They are desirable outcomes that take root in your mind. Your brain either confirms these goals or they pass as fleeting thoughts. When you decide you want to achieve your goals, you create standards as a means of taking those thoughts and applying actions to them. Think of standards as the performance benchmarks you’re willing to tolerate.

Standards are the actions that propel you toward your goals. Goals effectively become byproducts of how you approach your standards. Goals without standards are empty. Goals without standards are useless. Goals without standards are just a bunch of rudderless thoughts and words. They’re only unattached desires that will never materialize unless you pair them with the right standards. If you’ve created goals and fallen short, it’s because your standards are not congruent with your goals.

When your standard does not match what’s required to meet your goal, you won’t be properly motivated. If you set your standards beneath your capabilities, you won’t feel challenged, and you’ll lose interest.

Meditations

Daily Calm with Tamara Levitt – Morning Meditation

Each day, there is a magical time when we can open ourselves to pure possibility. And that time is the morning, during the early hours when the sun first climbs in the eastern sky; we rise to a new day feeling restored and rejuvenated. In the morning, the day is a spark of potentiality. If we really pause and listen, we can almost feel the quiet rumble of the entire world as it lumbers to life like a giant rising from bed and setting foot on a brand new day.

Begin the day with a beginner’s mindset, which means setting aside our rigid expectations and seeing the world with fresh eyes like a curious child. It means asking ourselves: “I wander what unexpected things will happen today?” Today is another opportunity to discover and learn, to live and dream, to imagine and create, to care and love. Lets soar to the day with a sense of service, asking ourselves “What contribution will I make today?, what quality do I want to move in the day with?

“We are born in one day. We die in one day. We can change in one day. And we can fall in love in one day. Anything can happen in just one day.” ― Gayle Forman, Just One Day

Daily Jay with Jay Shetty – Facts vs Opinion

Sometimes, we feel so strongly that our opinions seem more like facts, and it is hard to understand how someone else possibly sees things another way, yet they do. But we’d be better served by making space for other people’s views, and we can do that by looking a bit more critically at our own. A polar bear will never begrudge a snake for basking on a warm rock and soaking in the sun, that would be silly right?. And yet, as humans, we do something similar all the time.

Separating objective truth from subjective experience keeps our minds open. So we don’t think our way is the only way, which can help us avoid unnecessary conflict. It could also prevent us from overlooking important information. We tend to put ourselves, our sensations, and our interpretations at the center of things. And so, everyone who disagrees deviates from what we think is the norm. When someone else voices a contrasting view, we are sure they are the strange one, not us.

The more you dig in your heels, the more you create a pattern where you think that you are always right and they are always wrong. When that happens, you lose your ability to view things with an open mind or to alter your perspective to change your opinions. You just have to take a step back and acknowledge that there might just be another way to see the world.

One way to start that shift in perception is to shift our language. When we say things like, it’s hot in here or you are supposed to load the dishwasher this way. We are planting our flag and declaring what is right. That is probably not our intention but that is its effect. Rather than declaring a fact, share your opinion or experience of the moment. You can still hold your beliefs or advocate strongly for your views. But acknowledging when something isn’t an absolute fact leaves space for someone else’s view. Your perceptions create a filter between the world, your internal world and how you see or experience it.

Daily Trip with Jeff Warren – The Presence of Absence

Because an absence isn’t a thing, we begin to realize that it can be lost. These empty spaces are a kind of nourishment that we carry with us always and everywhere. It’s like we just forget to notice. Meditation is remembering.

Podcast