“Everything you have wanted is on the other side of your comfort zone.”
Over the last two days I’ve interviewed new staff for both my Manchester and St. Helens studio. Mad you may think to be expanding in such times of uncertainty; this is the thing, everyone wants to show up when everything is going well and teach the celebs and the footballers, but few people want to come into a studio that is rebuilding its business from scratch. Pain is not attractive, but that’s where the true warriors shine.
Have purpose and mission. Life is about going with the bends in the river, the ups and downs. Life is not about a growth comfort experience; it’s about learning through challenge and contribution.
If you are to raise your standards, you need to find a challenge that inspires you, rather than drains you. As soon as you stop raising your standards, you just settle for where you are. If you don’t get better, it means you actually get worse. If you just stay in your limits of what you know, you are staying in your comfort trap. Comfort always has an expiry date.
You have to be willing to put yourself in DISCOMFORT to achieve your goals. This could be getting up earlier, going to bed earlier, sacrificing weekend time to food prep, spending more time on the business, investing and committing to learning …
Stepping outside of your mental constrict of your comfort zone is a challenge. Most of us don’t want to do it.
Most people won’t put in the time, the effort, the resources and the energy to get where they want. With anything you want in life you need sustained commitment over a period of time. Everyone can easily do Monday to Thursday, but no one wants to do weekends or the holiday season.
It is easy to be committed when everything is going well, but not so easy when there are problems.
If you don’t water the plants, they will shrink. Humans need to be constantly moving and growing internally and externally. Your bank account will always reveal your standards. Look at where and what you are spending on and that is where your core values lie.
Your current position is a result of your past effort. Your current standards will reveal your future results.
The fastest way to raise your standard is to raise your peer group. Your peer group is a gathering of people who you will conform your behaviour too. Your environment is everything. As if your willpower opposes your goals and your peer group doesn’t hold you accountable. When you will power runs out you will give in to the environment.
Being around people who are excited about life is contagious.
You can hit your targets by aligning your peer group with your target. If you don’t set a goal or outcome it’s like putting a shark in a fish tank; it won’t grow.
An example of aligning your peer group would be community or tribe like gym, choir, running club, cooking class, BMI meetings, karate class , book club or similar. A virtual peer group would be WhatsApp, LinkedIn or similar. A hybrid peer group would mainly work online but meet in person occasionally.
So your three keys to raising your standards are:
1.Inspiration
2.Discipline
3.Not resisting
Discipline has to follow inspiration. Start with inspiration. Inspiration is when you make it about other people. Most inspired people are helping others achieve their goals. Inspired people will do what it takes. Motivated people tend to give up when life gets in the way.
The definition of inspiration is to breathe life into others, impacting people, helping family and friends. How do we get inspired ? We look at the year ahead. All the things I am inspired to do are about other people.
You are where you are today because that is where you have chosen to be. You are always free to choose your actions, or inactions and your life today is the sum of total of your choices good or bad. If you want the future to be different , you need to make better choices. You can learn anything you need to learn to become anyone you want to become and to achieve anything you want to achieve.
Bibliography
Paul Mort communications
Paul Chek podcasts
