“Instead of taking ownership and saying I fucked up and I’ll do better moving forward, you change the standard, you drop the bar so low you end up with [nothing]. It happens so gradually you don’t even notice it.  So hold the standard, even in those seemingly insignificant little things.  Stop lowering the bar to meet your current level of effort,” Bishoi Khella.  Yesterday we talked about not shrinking to fit in and this goes right along with it—don’t change our standards when things get rough.  Don’t become something we are not, don’t make it easier for ourselves because we either fear we can’t do it or the thing we love becomes a little less convenient.  One mistake isn’t a reason to derail anything we’ve done so don’t let one mistake become another and another until nothing remains of what we want to become.  Each time we allow ourselves off the hook (with the exception of when we physically ACTUALLY need a break), we lose accountability over what we are trying to accomplish.  We push off what can be done today until tomorrow because we’re comfortable now.  But then tomorrow becomes today and suddenly today becomes tomorrow over and over again.  We learn we can’t hold ourselves to our word. 

The dreams we want will not create themselves.  We are powerful creatures and we can do a lot of things, but we can’t make something out of nothing.  The ironic thing is we can turn something into nothing if we continue to ignore what we need to do.  This is the smallest box we can think of.  We know we’re meant for more and we know the space is already too tight but we still try to force ourselves to stay tiny even though all it takes is standing up.  Admit when we want to sit for a minute—I’m not advocating for senseless overdrive and burnout.  We need to know when it’s time to get back up and we need to actually do it.  Don’t bring the bar down to our level unless we are going to use it to stand up and then raise it back where it needs to be.  When we keep it there, that’s when we get in trouble.  No, change isn’t easy, but when we make it non-negotiable and we take responsibility and authority for it, suddenly it’s all in our hands and everything we want opens up for us.  And yes, even the little things matter.  So stay the course, every single day.  Our integrity and commitment will get us where we want to be—and we are the only ones who know what we’re doing when no one else is watching.  Don’t betray ourselves for the sake of a chance to put in less effort.  Just put in the max effort we can when we can, give 100% of what we’ve got even if all we’ve got is 25%, and we will never regret it.