Living Your Highest Personal Standard

Do you ever stop to reflect on your personal standards?

And if you are a successful, high-achieving leader who'd like to rapidly advance your career and create a vision others want to follow, but you know you can be doing better, then keep reading.

In this article, you will learn five steps to develop and live your highest personal standards. This is important because whether you are aware of it or not, you are always living your personal standards. Your results, how you experience the world, and how other people respond to you and treat you, reflect your standards. 

Let’s start with a definition.  Your personal standards are a set of rules or guidelines that you set for yourself regarding your behavior. Personal standards represent what you stand for, and what you expect of yourself and others. Personal standards reflect values, beliefs and boundaries about which you care.

It is important to be aware of your personal standards so that you can raise them and  live in integrity with them.

Step 1.  Be clear about your vision. What do you want? I encourage you to think in terms of three years ahead. What do you want your life to be like in three years? Then, think of two goals, one personal and one professional, that will move you in the direction you want. Having clarity around your direction and vision are vital. This ensures your personal standards support your journey of growth and achievement.

Step 2. Develop clarity about your future self who is achieving your goals. In my BLISS Accelerator coaching for clients, we discuss self-image, which is the subconscious picture and mental blueprint that you hold of yourself. In order for you to unlock your potential and highest personal standards, it's helpful to create a new mental image of your future self.  Start thinking, feeling and acting like the future you. (See my free in-depth Masterclass on YouTube, Your High Performing Self-Image)

Step 3. Set your personal standards from the vantage point of your future self. Think from your future self who is living your vision, even before it's happening in the real world. As Albert Einstein once said, "Imagination is more important than knowledge."

Allow me to give you an example. In my own life, I have set a personal standard around being discerning in how and with whom I spend my time. In the past, I was a pleaser and said "yes" too frequently.  Being overly available got in the way of my goals. Thinking from my vision and future self has helped me to raise my personal standards and, in turn, protect my time and energy.

Step 4. Let go of lower standards to create higher standards. What have you been doing that is no longer serving you? What new personal standards will replace them? This will require you to build new habits. Come up with ten, if you can.  You can follow this format:

"I used to be routinely late for meetings vs now, I arrive a few minutes early."

"I used to "wing it" at meetings vs now, I prepare in advance."

"I used to be distracted by my phone vs now, I give my full attention to the person I'm with."

Step 5. Be persistent. Think of your life as a marathon. It is a long journey. You might make some mistakes and have some detours around your personal standards. You may accidentally lower your standards and fall back into old patterns at times. But if you stay persistent, you can unlock your highest personal standards. 

I encourage you to dream big and boldly about your vision and goals, and to set high standards for yourself.

As Oprah Winfrey once said, "Let excellence be your brand...When you are excellent, you become unforgetable."

Are you ready to live at your best? Schedule a complimentary consultation here.