To attain success in life you must push yourself up to the invisible line but never cross it because if you do you will lose everything and will have to start again. Unfortunately, for many the invisible line has never been taught and the consequence are startling, the jails are full.
Success isn’t just about forging ahead regardless of anyone or anything, and risking the consequences, although I have never come across a megger successful businessperson, athlete or artist that hasn’t pushed the boundaries of life, I think it’s in our DNA’s to sometimes live on the edge of life’s boundaries, without doing so we wouldn’t understand the invisible line that shapes our lives in so many ways.
Throughout the 1950’s and 60’s as children it was very easy to know where the line was, your farther told you in no uncertain terms followed by the pain inflicted with some added wise words like “if they put their heads in the fire would you copy them?” That’s when you start to learn why you refuse to be involved in the way some people live their lives.
I get the feeling that we are in a world now were unfortunately people don’t want to participate in the sort of community education of the 50’s because of the reverse consequences of intervening.
Educating people so that they can understand the invisible line has almost gone because the small consequences to put a stop to bad behaver has gone, so, this problem only gets bigger enabling people to cross the line without realising it which then becomes the normal falling standards.
Standards can change.
We all have standards, your standards will be different to others along with the invisible line that decides what you accept, what you reject, what you tolerate, and what you demand from yourself and the world around you.
Generally speaking, every Country and society have a range of acceptable standards that everyone adheres to, if not anarchy and chaos pursue which I can see is happening in the UK right now.
When I was young, my standards were shaped by my parents, the second world war was over, food rationing was still on and a kind of military upbringing for kids then was the normal. In other words, you did as you were told or you would suffer the consequences.
And here’s the truth: many people say you fall to your standards, but I think if you raise your standards in line to your goals, assuming you have made your goals higher than what your standards are you should be all right.
The standards you start with can be irrelevant because once you have your goals standards follow, and whether they rise or fall depends on the invisible line which is there in every aspect of our lives.
When we were young, 24 in 1974 our standards were shaped by survival.
Work hard.
Get by with nothing.
Don’t complain.
Do your best with what you’ve got.
There’s a quiet force that determines the quality of your life, your business, your relationships, your habits, and your results.
It’s not motivation alone but goals that drive motivation.
It’s not talent, you build on what you have and improve on it.
It’s not luck, the only luck you had was a 400 billion to one chance that you were born.
As Marilyn and I grew we built our life together realising something important: It’s not what you’ve got it’s what you do with what you have and we had each other and two heads with the same goals is better than a thousand without a goal.
If you want a better life, you need better standards.
Not better luck.
Not better timing.
Not better circumstances.
Better standards.
So we raised ours.
Slowly at first.
Then relentlessly.
And every time we raised our goals, we raised our standards, and our life rose with them.
The standards Marilyn and I built together.
We didn’t tolerate laziness.
We didn’t tolerate excuses.
We didn’t tolerate giving up.
We expected:
- Hard work
- Learning
- Improvement
- Respect
- Responsibility
- Momentum
Those standards shaped our relationship.
They shaped our home.
They shaped our future.
And eventually, they shaped our business.
The standards that built our business.
People often ask how we can built businesses.
They expect a strategy. A secret. A trick. But the truth is simple:
For a business to survive and prosper you need to have higher standards than everyone else.
Higher standards for service.
Higher standards for speed.
Higher standards for quality.
Higher standards for learning.
Higher standards for how people are treated.
Higher standards for how problems are solved.
We don’t accept “that’ll do.”
We don’t accept “it’s not my job.”
We don’t accept “it’s always been done this way.”
Standards became your culture.
Culture becomes your advantage.
Advantage becomes your success.
Why standards matter as much as goals
Goals are what you want. Standards are what you’re willing to accept.
Goals live in your head. Standards live in your behaviour.
Goals sound good. Standards show good.
Anyone can set a goal. Very few people raise their standards.
But here’s the magic:
When you raise your standards, your behaviour changes automatically.
And when your behaviour changes, your results have no choice but to follow.
Standards shaped everything:
- How we greeted people
- How we solved problems
- How we handled complaints
- How we trained staff
- How we designed businesses.
- How we made decisions
It wasn’t a slogan.
It was a standard.
And that standard built loyalty, trust, and momentum long before we had money, systems, or scale.
The three types of standards that shape everyone’s lives
1. Personal Standards.
How you treat yourself.
How you speak to yourself.
How you show up.
How you drive yourself when no one is watching.
2. Behaviour Standards.
What you tolerate from yourself.
What you refuse to tolerate.
What you commit to daily.
What you expect from your effort.
3. Environmental Standards.
The people you allow around you.
The habits you allow in your life.
The energy you allow in your home or business.
The expectations you set for others.
Raise these three, and everything changes.
The hard truth about standards.
Your life today is a reflection of your standards yesterday.
If your standards are low, your results will be low.
If your standards are average, your results will be average.
If your standards are high, your results will rise to meet them.
It’s not personal.
It’s not emotional.
It’s structural.
Your standards set your ceiling and your floor.
A challenge for this week.
Don’t try to change everything.
Just raise one standard.
Ask yourself:
“What is one thing I’ve been tolerating that I know I shouldn’t?”
Then stop tolerating it.
And ask:
“What is one standard I can raise today that will pull my life forward?”
Then raise it.
Because when you raise your standards, you raise your life.
And when your standards become non negotiable, success becomes inevitable.