THE PRINCIPLE OF STANDARDS
IT'S ABOUT THE RESULTS YOU WANT!




























































THE QUESTIONS

How high shall I go?

What is the "right balance"?


A "POOR USE" OF STANDARDS

Are standards just a basis for making you feel bad and/or motivating you negatively?  If I'm short, should I punish myself. 

No.  Adhere to the "standard" of how to treat yourself, as suggested as the alternative to Living The Punitive Way - The Road To Hell.


STANDARDS AS EXPECTATIONS

Most humans are at the level of development where they really want to "do right".  They strive to do right and live life well.  And many of them, until they learn the truth behind "not yet knowing, will end up criticizing themselves for falling short of their standards.  While doing so may be a fact to observe, there is no need to be "mean" about it by criticizing oneself for it. 

What happens is that people drift into setting the standards as expectations instead of (gentle, objective, wise) guidelines. 

Don't make that mistake, please, as it will lead to useless, needless "feeling bad", plus a habit of negative thinking.

So, read The Effects Of Unreasonable Expectations and also read about the way not to criticize oneself, starting with No Fault - Just "Not Knowing Yet" (although the links may lead you to it anyway, I want to make sure that you implement into your life:  Self Compassion - And Letting Go Of The Great Burden).



DEFINING

Definition:  A level of quality that is held or sought because it produces desired results. 

(However, the standards can be set by someone else who has authority over you, to use as a measure of whether you are producing results.  I am, however, talking about your own standards.)

Poor standards lead to poor results.

(They are not about some other person punishing you,, which is, of course,a  bad result in terms of feelings.  It is about you suffering as a result and/or not getting what you want.)

DO THIS

Contents/Links Values, Standards, And Rules For My Life - Read the pieces relevant to each of these and write out your standards, rules and values and then live by them.


MODEL THIS
 
Role Models And Mentors - Guidance, Wisdom, And Not Reinventing The Wheel- Adopt these people's standards, using your judgment to determine if they are out of balance for what gets overall better results in life.  Such as in:


BUT CHOOSE ONLY "THIS"

Great "Men" - But Did They Live Great Lives? - I don't want to be 'great' if it doesn't include being happy!  So I pick here my models who are happy and whose standards, etc., I should consider adopting.


My Resetting Of Standards After I Realized I Needed Better Ones!  (tbd)
THE BIG CAUTION!

Discussed below, to the right, is the tendency for people to make "standards" into absolute, unrealistic expectations, which ALWAYS results in the Unhappiness Gap!


WHO YOU ARE AROUND

If you are around people with poor standards in any area, your automatic comparing mechanism will have you using those standards to form lower standards that you would have with people who are higher functioning in the area.

You've probably heard over and over and over that who you are around will affect how well you deal with life.  But we fail to heed the importance of this.  It is vital, vital, vital.


A STANDARD FOR BALANCE

Some people use "time spent" as an indication of balance.  However, I would suggest that balance is based on the "net" (positive minus negative) of what you get out of something.

For instance, you would keep on doing something that is giving you a high yield until you see that there is something else to do that would give you a higher yield in terms of the results you want.   (Of course, you wouldn't keep doing your music practicing to the extent it caused you to not make a good enough living monetarily.)

You would always set as your standard and way of operating living according to The 80/20 Principle - The Principle To Run Your Life On!  If you don't do this, you'll end up with a life of mediocrity and letting events, circumstances, and other people "run" you.

Living The 80/20 Way is the way to go!


HOW DO I IMPLEMENT THIS?

As with rules and guidelines, first copy from already established writings on standards set in various areas of life.  (Start at Values, Standards, And Rules For My Life - Contents, Links.)

Although you can set it up in other reference notebooks (such as the Planning Notebook), these are better placed in an easier reference notebook called The Reminders Notebook.  You simply put the items you want to review and follow behind a tab, per the table of contents for that notebook, and then review them sufficiently so that you are familiar with and/or have memorized them.  As you live life, you can access these standards as needed. 

It is best to organize each section of the standards section into separate pages for each area of life you have them in, so that they are not lost in a massive, undifferentiated list!

Good fortune to you, for if you implement this, your life will improve markedly!