3 Ways To Raise Your Standards and Improve Your Life

Sometimes we feel like we’ve been putting up with a situation for way too long, yet we settle, allow, and stay, without any apparent hope of getting out. It is frustrating and it seems to make no sense.

Who would ever dream of or knowingly set low standards, settle for average, and build a stagnant life?

We wouldn’t, yet we often sabotage our deepest desires to become what God created us to be and accept far less than we deserve.

 

I will dare say that whatever you are experiencing today, right now, is a direct result of your standards, whether set consciously or unconsciously [ adopted from family, culture, church, environment, etc.] 

Your standards represent what you will put up with and what you won’t, what you tolerate, what you allow to happen in your life. Your personal set of standards helps you determine what is acceptable and what is unacceptable in your life.

In order to improve your results in life is to raise the standards you hold for yourself ~ and others (boundaries). 

In Romans 12:2, we read “And be not CONFORMED to this world: but be ye TRANSFORMED by the RENEWING of your mind.” [- emphasis and purple prettiness added by me 😉 ]

As moms, we are often times encouraged to conform to what everyone expects of us, or we risk being ridiculed, bullied, attacked, accused, rejected, questioned, cast out, criticized, isolated, and put on the spotlight. Becoming an exception takes courage. A great deal of it.

I homeschool, I’m vegan, I don’t drink alcohol or coffee, I don’t watch movies that are rated R or display low-vibration scenes, I don’t listen to songs with explicit lyrics – or conventional radio-, I excuse myself from places, conversations, and relationships where I feel uncomfortable, I don’t watch TV… this is an extremely shy list, too. 

It may seem that my choices are slimming, but I’ve learned the simple lesson that LESS IS MORE… and it is SO worth it, as there’s much at stake. Saying NO is a skill that we must all develop in order to live a life we love.

3 Ways To Raise Your Standards and Improve The Quality Of Your Life!

When we raise our standards and live by them, we can improve the quality of our relationship with ourselves and others, therefore, we improve the quality of our life.

Identify your frustrations. ~ The first step to know what our standards will be is self-awareness. Understanding what you don’t want, will show you by contrast what you do want, and allows you to make a deliberate choice to never allow that into your consciousness. I love this quote by Anthony Robbins:

“I wrote down all of the things that I would no longer accept in my life, all the things I would no longer tolerate, and all the things I aspired to becoming” ~ Anthony Robbins, Awaken The Giant Within, Chapter 1 

I remember doing this when I attended UPW (Unleash the Power Within). I had often said to myself “I am done,” but I had never actually written those statements down as a declaration.

A simple exercise to help guide you in the right direction is to write the following statement in a blank sheet of paper:

“From this day forward, I will no longer tolerate_____”

Center yourself and then in visceral and novela-dramatic language, describe what frustrates you, irritates you, hurts you, bothers you, makes you angry, pushes your buttons… Write down the worst that could happen if you don’t stop allowing it into your life, tolerating it, settling, and engaging in it.

It seems so simple, yet it is so powerful. The list I made helped me take personal responsibility for creating the relationship my soul needed. I stopped blaming the men in my past, and understanding what I engaged in and what I allowed to happen. 

Having this awareness was necessary to make a better choice the next time around, while understanding that I made the choices I thought were best with the skills I had in the past.

 

Get Clear about your top passions and core values: by creating a deliciously compelling vision of what you want in your life. What will a life you love look like? What will you experience as a result of drawing a line in the sand? How will these outcome make your life better?

Each goal you set for yourself or for your children, needs to be supported by a standard, or it just won’t be reached. Instead of setting a standard for who you are right now, try doing it based on what God says about you, and start acting like that person.

Renew Your Mind: Once we are clear about what we won’t allow, engage in, or tolerate, as well as what we truly desire to see manifested in our lives, we must evaluate the thoughts, beliefs, and emotions that are holding us back, so we can remove the blocks that sabotage our happiness.

I had to learn to love myself before I could learn to receive love from others. I had to forgive my mother before I was able to let go of abusive patterns in my life. I had to reprogram myself and shift my paradigms in order to create a new lifestyle. Some of the moms I mentor have had to redefine their relationship with food, with their partner, with their kids, or with their work. It’s a long journey, yet one that is worth walking.

I know, with 100% conviction, that YOU deserve a GRAND life to share with your children. Every time you feel the need to explain yourself or compromise who you are becoming, remember that with your example, you can help your little ones develop an identity that is congruent with God’s will for them.

As I navigate life with high standards in place, it helps to recognize I’m imperfect, and it is part of the plan. Step by step, I’m on the journey to enhance our life experience together, because I know, the higher our standards, and the stronger our commitment to honor them, the happier our life will be together, and beyond. Yippee!

What are some of the standards you’ve decided to hold yourself to? I’d love to hear more in the comments section below.

Founder of the Positive MOM® and creator of the S.T.O.R.Y. System: a blueprint to craft and share powerful stories that will transform your results and help others do the same. Dr. Elayna Fernández is a single mom of 4, an award-winning Storyteller, Story Strategist, and Student of Pain. She’s a bestselling author, internationally acclaimed keynote speaker, and 5x TEDx speaker. She has spoken at the United Nations, received the President’s Volunteer Lifetime Achievement Award, and was selected as one of the Top Impactful Leaders and a Woman of Influence by SUCCESS Magazine. Connect with Elayna at thepositivemom.com/ef and follow @thepositivemom. To receive a gift from Elayna, click HERE.

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