Your Standards Determine Your Success

Success is desired by everyone, but the question is; how may people are willing to maintain the standards that are required for success? You cannot dream of excellence yet settling for average performance. Nor can you desire outstanding performance but settle for ordinary habits. It is the standards that you set for yourself that will determine the quality of your decisions, of your work, your relationship with people, and ultimately determine your future.

Standards are like the personal rules and the expectations that you choose to live by. In other words, it is a reflection of what you can accept and what you cannot accept in your life. The people who have high standards do not wait until someone pushes them to excellence before they act. They will always hold themselves accountable, because they believe that they should give their best at all times. They have the mentality that "if anything is worthy to be done, then it is worthy to be done very well." When you do things in an anyhow manner, you will also get an anyhow result. But when you put in the best you can, then you will expect to get a good result.

You have to understand that high standards produce quality work. There is a friend of mine who makes shoes. His shoes are a bit on the high side, but he enjoys patronage from a lot of people even from outside the state. When I took out time to observe him, I understood one thing; he would always use quality materials to produce shoes. There was a pair of footwear that I bought from him some years back, it is still looking very good and solid till now even after using it extensively. If I had gone for a less quality one, I may have bought a couple of replacements for it and will end up spending even more. I understand that his standards of using only quality materials was what made his products quality. This also makes people to trust his products.

Having a high standards also helps you to build your reputation. Trust me, your reputation is among the strongest assets that you own. People are generally more likely to remember people who are reliable, dependable, hardworking, and honest. When you constantly maintain high standards, people will see you as someone who they can trust. Employers will recommend you, customers will recommend your brand, and even your friends will respect you, because they know that you are committed to excellence. Having a good reputation will grant you access to a lot of opportunities that even your qualifications cannot give you.

It is also worthy to note that your standards determine your daily habits. Success is built on your daily habits, but your habits are determined by the standards you have. For example, if your standard is punctuality, you will always arrive early. If your standard is continuous learning, you will make the habit of constantly acquiring new knowledge, reading, researching, etc, and this will lead to self-improvement. What you expect from yourself will determine what you invest into it. If you do not expect much from yourself, you will see yourself procrastinating, settling for less, inconsistent, and lacking determination. But if you expect more from yourself, you will be more serious, you will invest in improving yourself, and you will value yourself, your time, and your energy.

I have also come to realise that your high standards can influence other people positively. Your standards does not only influence you, it also influences the lives of the people around you. When you constantly show others honesty, kindness, discipline, and excellence, you will motivate others to raise their own standards to follow suit. Your actions will become a source of inspiration and motivation for others to know that success is achieved through commitment, and not by shortcuts. Your standards act as a foundation upon which a lot of other things are built on, including your future. So do not lower your standards to fit in or to feel belonged. Rather, your higher standards should be able to make to stand out.

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