We all set goals and we all have great intentions.
Yet the majority of us come up short.
A few days ago, I read something that helped me connect the dots as to why this is the case:
“We don’t get our goals, we get our standards.”
Goals Can be Fucked With
We can write them down. We can shout them out. We can memorize them.
We can also choose to ignore them.
When things get hard or inconvenient, goals have the tendency to take a back seat. And they take a backseat the shittiest stuff – sleeping in, someone else’s opinion, or Busch Lite.
They’re just so easy to rationalize away…
Standards Aren’t
My standards are a lot like Rambo; they’re uncompromisable, unreasonable, and unfuckwithable.
Think of them the same way you’d think of values. Simply put, standards are the operating manual that we’re given by our parents, our friends, and our experiences for navigating through life.
They set the bar for what we will and for what we won’t tolerate – showing up places on time, staying true to our word, doing what’s right instead of what’s easy.
As we grow up, they become the foundation of our personality and the building blocks of our most established habits.
I Like Goals, I Just Like Standards More
I’ve spent the majority of my life as a big proponent of goals, and I still believe that they have their place.
After all, how are you supposed to know where you’re going without a map? The problem with maps? They’re no good until you decide that you’re going somewhere.
A solid example of this is a standard that I’ve recently set for myself:
“Commitment to an action instead of attachment to an outcome.”
This standard originated from my goal of being more active on social media. The social media game is discouraging. Particularly after spending three hours on a piece of content that will only get one like (from my girlfriend).
By committing to the action instead of getting attached to the outcome, I know that I’ll continue to experience consistent growth without expecting to be an overnight success, getting discouraged, and quitting.
If it was the other way around, I wouldn’t stand a damn chance.
One Can’t Happen Without the Other
Without goals, Einstein wouldn’t have ever dreamt up the lightbulb. Without standards, he would have slept all day and pissed away his money on Only Fans.
Goals are what we work towards, and standards are what make the work happen.
The next time you decide to set a goal make sure that your standards are in line with that goal. Reaching a goal is hard enough. Aligning ourselves with the proper standards gives us the best chance of success.
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