There was this guy I met in one of the places I did a vacation job when I was in school. He was the office assistant, which was a position for high school leavers. Surprisingly, it was even later that I got to find out that he had a university degree. While he was looking for the job, they said it was for people with just O'level. But he needed a job urgently, so he settled for the bare minimum, and did not push forward his university degree certificate. He did not mind submitting a lower certificate. Because of this, he was often overlooked for promotions. His low standards reflected how little he expected from himself. Your standards are actually a direct reflection of the extent of value you have for yourself.
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The standards you set in your life will say a lot of things about how you see yourself. For example; in your relationships, at your place of work, in your personal dealings with people, the habits you form, your goals and aspirations, what you allow in your life, and even what you accept, are all reflections of your self-worth. In other words, your standard is a pointers to what you believe you deserve. If you deserve less or you deserve more, it will show in the kind of standards you set. Trust me, people will relate with you on the basis of what you accept and refuse. If "anything goes," they will be free to do anything they want without even minding about how you feel.
When your self-worth is high, your standards will also naturally be high. You will value your time, energy, resources, and your growth, so you will be selective about what and who you allow into your life. In fact, you will not settle for less than you think you deserve, and you will not go lower than your value. You will even push yourself to achieve greatness, to do more, to be the best version of yourself. This will make you to surround yourself with the people that matter, and will be of positive influence to you. On the other hand, if your self-worth is low, your standards will be low and you will even settle for the bare minimum. You may even tolerate the things that you should not. Things like poor treatment, low efforts, and even bad habits.
Your standards act like a filter. That is, they determine what stays in your life and what does not stay in your life. If you have very low standards, that means everything and anything can enter. Like distractions, mediocrity, and even negativities. But when your standards are high, you will become more intentional and conscious about your life and how you live. You will learn how to protect and manage your time, your energy, your resources, and then you will focus on your growth and progress.
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This is also reflected in the area of personal discipline. When you hold yourself to a high standards, you will not need motivation to act. As a matter of fact, you will show up consistently no matter how difficult it may look like. You will complete your tasks, follow through on your commitments, and push yourself to achieve a better result and improve on who you are. This is not because someone is watching you, nor because you want to please anyone, but simply because you expect more from yourself, and you are working to achieve more.
It is worthy to note that having high standards does not mean that you are perfect. Rather it is about being intentional. That is, it is about making a decision to yourself that "average" is not good enough for you, and that you are better than where you are now. It is true that you may make mistakes, because you are not immune to errors, but you will not allow your mistakes to make you feel less of yourself. Rather it will even make you to learn and improve on yourself. You have to understand that it is how you rate yourself that others will also rate you. If you do not see yourself in a positive way, others will also not see you in a positive way too. So you have to maintain a high standard for yourself.
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