Why High Standards help you - Why Commitment increase attention
Quite often I get the question “why do you do this?” Some talk about “why the commitment on consistency” others “why for free when you have people who are thankful for the opportunity to pay you for your knowledge and the results you help them bring”
I’m happily sharing help to anyone, time permitting so most people know I enjoy helping, serving, giving a lifting hand. I think it’s in the context of “why are you forcing on yourself a higher standard when no-one else is asking for it” - this question I often get at my consultant assignments or pro-bono mentoring as well.
I have many reasons or doing this. The first is:
“Be generously the person you needed when you where younger”
I have done a lot of mistakes in my life. I learn constantly and have been lucky to most of the time having wise and generous people around me, wanting to invest their energy and time into helping me learn faster, helping me archive more, helping me see the roads to having an impact for more people. It feels really good giving back after been lucky to receive so much. And there was times in my life when I had no role-models to learn from. And wish everyone to have some-place to learn how to improve, how to figure out who they want to become if they’re not where they want to be in life.
Another question I get quite often is:
“What’s up with all the questions to the listener? ... or out to the void”
What I say is not really important. What matters is what happens on the listener side.
Is my effort helping anyone take actions to bettering their life or not.
There I think making people questions where they stand is the greatest gift we can give. I’m sharing some thoughts hopefully helping they land in an answer and in taking actions on that answer, or taking action in deepening the question or searching for an answer if need be.
just listening, reading, watching - does not change munch
You can say in most way what I say is irrelevant if it doesn’t make you, my listening, take action for the better.
Some people say I would sound smarter if I state things as the truth, or most likely this or that but I don’t feel like that. I’m just sharing a worldview, mine, that’s not the truth. I do read a lot of studies, surveys, data and metrics but that’s not the whole holistic truth either. That’s just data that we can see, measure and touch but choose to act very different on. My wish is to make your life better, not make me sound better. Only you know your life.
“Why the consistency”?
When you know you have committed yourself to show up, you see more of life.
Something shifts in you when you commit to higher standards. When you commit to something beyond yourself. Commit to helping others even when it’s not the perfect time. It rarely is the perfect time to do something you don’t need to. When the only one saying you should is you its easy skip it.
I want to inspire you to do the same, on YOUR path, on following your passion. When you start to commit to something you’ll pay attention to so much more.
I remember when I starting a drawings course.. Suddenly I started to see shadows in everyone’s faces, in architecture, everywhere.
Same thing with photography, but instead I see the light, the multiple lights that wash over most things around us.
Same thing when I started an impro class (to extent my comfortzone, oh my how uncomfortable I was until I one day noticed I was actually having fun, you will to in your area eventually if you just keep it up)
Same thing when you’re learning any trade – you’ll start to see the underlying mechanics
For example when driving change - you see the underlying empathy everywhere. Without it nothing happens, not enough “care” from people, not enough urgency.
Your attention is soo important, don’t waste it. And selfishly for myself. This commitment to showing up to share these thoughts on a regular basis helps me grow, my mind have to get new input, have to stretch, analyse, do the emotional hard work in raising my standard. The standard I set of who I want to be (I want to be a person that shares and helps others on a regular basis)
I’m quite sure all these out there that are writing a book, a novel without the courage to share it with the world, just hiding their gem in the drawer when going to bed at night. They too have a brain that benefit from this heightened attention as well. To these wonderful people I say the world needs you, your gift to the world, how can we help you get the courage to share. Its not easy, it wasn’t for me but eventually it became a lot easier. I still second guess and doubt myself. You will to, but it does get easier with consistency.
“Why all the talk about these soft-skills? Feelings, imagination, awareness, driving lasting change”
For me It’s important to share my struggles, weakness, fears and vulnerabilities so others can follow their own “imagination of what may be”
When I started I was very bad at this. Most people told me “why? You've dont got this, you already excel at other stuff, why do you persist with this that you’re apparently lousy at”
I got feedback like “Why? There’s already people out there that talks about similar things”
”sound louder/more volume”. “sound happier/more cheerful (I’m extremely positive in nature so although said with care they couldn’t understand why I sounded like a strangled cat on the recordings when I’m so happy go along in the real life world)
So I didn’t get that much cheers when starting this. It was mostly resistance. This from people I knew and trusted. And in for a long time it as crickets from the world. Nothing. A rising download number but not the huge numbers the “top” people talked about, nothing like that by far. Some part of me was still scared about the numbers being awfully high since I was so bad at it still, I silently thanked for it. I know now that most likely didn’t help.
Now I hear “thank you” and stories of change taking place because something I shared.
You can to. You can have a bigger impact than you think. But you MUST start. And you must be patient... and sadly, most likely you’ll have to stand alone for a while because most people will not understand. But that’s EXACLY why you need to do it. So other people out there that understand what only you understand in the area you are, with the people you meet understand. Because out there, in the void, on this globe are other people just like you.. ..who know things you know, and just like you, are fighting the resistance trying to too do better. Be their guiding star. Be there for them and you’ll realize this journey will also make you become more of you. Become more of the person your younger self needed.
To this for your own sake, but for sure, it will also help you be a person others gladly connect to
if this text helps you, try listening to my podcast episode about the same thing