“How long are you going to wait before you demand the best from yourself?” — Epictetus
In the past, in the present and in the future, this truth reigns supreme…
To live a bigger, better, bolder and far more beautiful life…
You must expect and demand more from yourself.
I’ve always pursued what I consider to be the organizing principles of lasting change, and today…I want to share a proven three-point plan that you can use to transform and upgrade your life.
Based on my studies of mind stuff, I am of the belief that the best things in life are free, and that the best strategies in life are simple.
By that I mean, simple to understand, apply, teach and share with others.
The following three strategies are simple, and they are also extremely powerful…however, they require consistent and skillful application in order for you to upgrade your life and unleash your greatness.
These are the exact same strategies that an individual must make in order to create personal change…
These are the exact same strategies that organizations must make in order to create a lasting competitive advantage…
So if you own a company here, you can use this same strategy to be competitive in the market place
These are the exact same strategies that a community or a team of like minds must make in order to best serve the interest of all
STEP ONE — UPGRADE YOUR STANDARDS
Any time you sincerely want to change and improve your life…the first thing you must do is to upgrade your standards.
Upgrading your standards means raising your expectations and demanding more from yourself and from those around you.
That means purging high maintenance people and situations from your life…as well as having zero tolerance for mediocrity, procrastination, and any behaviour that robs you of potential and increased performance.
High maintenance people I mean those that tending to cause problems or demand attention, people that are extremely sensitive, demanding, or temperamental.
If by chance you think that’s too harsh…I assure you that if standards are not raised…and, if you do not challenge and demand more from yourself…you’ll continue to under-perform, be under-appreciated and suffer the consequences of low and compromised standards.
Consider this fair warning — what you put up with…you end up with!
THE LIST
You begin the process of upgrading your standards by creating three lists:
- List all the things (behaviors, habits and beliefs) you will no longer accept from yourself.
- List all the things you will no longer tolerate from other people.
- All the things that you aspire to become.
In the words of Ralph Emerson… “The only person you are destined to become is the person you decide to be.”
If you have the courage to expect and demand more from yourself and more importantly, if you have the commitment to honor these higher, nobler standards…you will upgrade your life, and create the change you desire.
STEP TWO— UPGRADE YOUR BELIEFS
If you upgrade your standards but don’t really believe you can meet them, then you have already sabotaged yourself.
This is one of the biggest challenges people face when initiating change and trying to upgrade their life.
Why? Because you won’t even try; you’ll be lacking that sense of certainty that allows you to tap the deepest capacity that’s within you even as you are listening to me on this affirmation call this morning
Our beliefs are like unquestioned commands, telling us how things are, what’s possible and what’s impossible, what we can and cannot do.
They shape every action, every thought, and every feeling that we experience.
As a result, upgrading our beliefs is central to making any real and lasting change in our lives.
You must develop a sense of certainty that you can and will meet the new, better, upgraded standards before you actually do.
Without demanding more and upgrading your belief systems, you can upgrade your standards as much as you like…but you’ll never have the conviction to back them up.
STEP THREE— UPGRADE YOUR STRATEGY
To honour your commitments, keep your promises and achieve your goals…you need the best strategies for achieving those results.
One of my core beliefs is that if you upgrade your standards, as well as upgrading your beliefs…then you certainly can figure out the strategies to achieve any outcome you desire. You will find a way to get it done.
I can tell you with the confidence of a man holding four aces that the best strategy for upgrading your life and fast tracking your results is to model successful behaviour.
Just imagine if you could…
Learn to invest like Warren Buffett
Learn to prospect like Holten Butts, David Imonite
Maybe Jim Rohn
Just imagine you started thinking, writing, speaking, behaving and even executing like one of these preeminent performers.
How would that change your life?
How would that transform your choices, decisions and actions?
Would you learn to do things better, faster and easier?
Would your confidence level shoot to the moon?
The good news is that there is no need for you to imagine these things…because this is very possible once you upgrade your strategy and start using psychological modelling.
Psychological modelling is a form of copying, mirroring or imitating the behaviour of another person.
This can be done to great advantage on a conscious level of awareness; however, we often tend to do this at an unconscious level.
The most efficient way to master any skill, strategy or goal in life is to model those who have already forged the path ahead.
What that means is…
You don’t need to reinvent the wheel when you can leverage what others have done to reinvent the results.
If you can find someone who is getting the results you want…then you can model their behavior, take the same actions they are taking, and ultimately get the same results.
Not only will this make you more effective…it will also save you a huge amount of time because you won’t have to reinvent the wheel.
You can fine-tune it, reshape it, and perhaps even make it better.
The best possible modeling scenario however has everything to do with environment and proximity.
If you want to upgrade your life and turn your dreams and goals into a reality faster…you must get yourself in proximity with the people who are demanding more of themselves and playing the game at a higher level than you are.
Proximity is power and whether it’s your business, health, finances, or relationships — surrounding and modeling yourself with people who are already successful in that area allows you to model what is proven to work, helping you compress and consume knowledge, skills, shortcuts and strategies quickly.
This lesson was designed to provide you with the information and impetus to commit to all three of these master principles for upgrading your life.
- Upgrade your standards by raising your expectations, and demanding more from yourself and from those around you.
- Upgrade your beliefs by questioning and replacing anything that slows you down and which impedes progress.
- Upgrade your strategy by modelling successful behavior.
This particular strategy will help you to elegantly, quickly, and efficiently produce the results you desire.
In closing…spend your life pushing, challenging and demanding more from yourself…and you’ll enjoy a bigger, better and far more beautiful life.