I've always set goals for different stages of my life, but there was never really a frame, I did not choose a line of life and so I was quite dispersed.
What I came to understand is that the answer is: Standards.
Having high standards in life are the key to achieving one's goals!
I came across an article that allowed me to better understand this aspect, and I will share with you most of what I learned.
But first, what are the standards?
This is what separates the biggest from the rest of the world
Standards translate the degree of ego, of belief in oneself. It allows you to have a sense of urgency in achieving your goals and avoids the trap of useless thinking (* no longer focus on the main goals), which happens to many people.
Definition of personal standards:
"These are a set of behaviors built on the expectations we have of ourselves in different situations. They set benchmarks of performance for our life. "
These personal standards reflect how we treat ourselves, how we treat others and what behavior is expected of others towards us.
We like to be treated in the best way but if the standards are low, it reflects a lack of ego, self-esteem.
Personal standards are in every aspect of our lives: how we dress, we talk, we eat, our health, our finances, our environment, etc ...
How to raise them?
1- Clarify exactly what you want to achieve or succeed
Ask yourself the right questions:
What is my goal / what do I want to achieve?
What are my references? Who do I identify with, who is already at the level of success I want to reach (role models, mentors)?
What are the traits that I need to develop to reach this level?
What behaviors should I have?
2- Analyze our current situation
We must also target specific elements of our current situation:
What are the behaviors that define my actions now, and the results that flow from them?
What are my current standards?
Given the goals I would like to achieve, do my current standards prevent me from achieving them in any way?
3- Find inspiring mentors
We need to find appropriate mentors. People who currently live by the highest standards in specific areas of life that we want to focus on. The goal here is to use them as inspiration to help us raise our own personal standards.
4- Define clear standards
We must define the standards we will follow and the expectations we have of ourselves for every aspect of our lives. They will become what we believe in, rules that will govern our behavior.
These new rituals that we will create must create a change, and lead to new decisions, actions and habits that will help us to have a positive result in our projects, and maintain these higher standards in the long term.
5- Pain and pleasure
This last step is to use the principle of pain and pleasure to have the motivation to follow these new rituals:
For each action, there is the pain or the difficulty to do it, but the satisfaction of the result obtained becomes the pleasure and motivates to redo the necessary actions to look for more results.
To return to the example of sport, the most difficult is the beginning. After the body and mind get used and are in demand.
So what are your standards?