Set the Standard

Set the Standard

Set the standard is a phrase I have been chewing on for close to a year. We all have our standards for ourselves and others and while some might be high and others might be low, we will always fall back to those levels. While training at Westside Barbell, the standard was incredibly high. Everyone in the gym had a role. Your role was either to get your name on the record board, break all time world records, or help your training partners achieve those things. If you couldn’t help coach or bring training ideas to help the people around you, you wouldn’t last very long because you didn’t meet the standard that had been set by previous generations of members. The interesting thing with being around high level athletes, business owners, musicians etc. is that you can see where they set different standards for different areas of their life. Their craft might be highest standard to a level that seems obsessive to anyone outside, while other areas like relationships, personal development, financial status etc. might be non existent. After seeing this time after time, it got me thinking deeper into this idea of standards and how we approach them. The nice thing is, our standards are completely up to us and no one outside of us can control that. If someone doesn’t like your standard, who cares? Your standards are to hold you accountable to achieve your goals. While this might seem small and even futile to some, remember that many people never take the time to explore deeper into themselves and therefore become people that never stand out for anything other than fitting in. 

How to Create your Standard

Since the standards we set are totally personal to us, it gives us a lot of autonomy to create, evaluate, and change based on our current situation and future goals. This is your thing and no one else. It’s up to you if you want to share them with those close to you or keep it to yourself. You don’t have to broadcast when you’re holding yourself to a higher standard because people will notice when you’re elevating in several areas of life. Here are a few guidelines that helped me in creating standards for myself. 

Honesty - For this to be effective at all, you have to be really honest with yourself. Is my current situation the best I think it can be and is it bringing me the level of happiness I would like? I remember my doctor asking me one time if I was happy and feel good about things in general. I lied and said everything was going great. Three weeks later, I found myself in the darkest place I had been. I wasn’t being honest with myself or him because I didn’t want to work on the things that I knew needed to be addressed. Your growth can only begin once you see a need to change. 

Goals -Where do you want to be in 3-5 years? What will you be doing and what does that look like to you? Understand that goals without action are shit and worth less than the paper they’re written on. Once you find the goals, dig deeper and ask why two to three times on each goal. 

Example : I want to lose 100lbs

Why 1 : Because I’m not happy and hurt all the time.

Why 2 : Because I can’t do things with people I care about and I hurt because of inability to move.

Why 3 : By having more experiences with people, it will strengthen relationships and bring me more happiness into my life. 

As you dig deeper into your goals, you’ll realize that the goal is superficial with a much deeper meaning. 

Research - Now is the time to research what it will take to reach your goals. What are the habits associated with someone losing 100lbs and creating a healthy lifestyle? This might be helpful with a coach who has experience helping people in the area of your goals. Some people view seeking out coaching as a sign of weakness or inability, but really coaching in all areas of what you do is a fast track to getting places. I have used coaches for several areas of my business, my lifting, nutrition, health, mental health, and many other things that I found more success in after seeking help. When I first asked Josh Gutridge for help, I could Squat 500lbs. By most standards I was strong enough and many would say I didn’t need help. After his help I had achieved a 942lb Squat in competition and missed 1,000 and 1,003lbs. I had successfully completed a 975lb Squat in training. So in seeking help, my one lift had gone up nearly double.

Evaluate

I always find it interesting how people set these goals and then change their process to achieving them, but never come back to evaluate to see if what they’re doing is beneficial or a waste of time. (Even if you discover it’s a waste of time to keep doing something, it doesn’t mean time was wasted because you found a way that didn’t work for you). This is another area where a coach can be helpful in giving unbiased feedback. I like things like business (is profit up, number of customers etc), strength (can I lift more weight), sprinting (did I run faster) because the data is pretty clear. If you try something for three months, it should have a positive or negative effect. I like three month evaluations for most things because I view it similar to training progressions with weight training. In weight training a progression might look like this:

Week 1- Introduction

Week 2- Load

Week 3- Deload

Week 4- Test

Using this, you can essentially test some variable every 4 weeks to monitor if you’re closer or further from original goal. In week 5, maybe you need to change something or you discover you should keep doing the same because it’s working. Part of having a standard is constantly evaluating if you’re keeping to that standard. 

Action

This should go without saying, but it needs said. Without action your standards mean nothing and neither does anything you’re saying you stand for. Reading motivational books and listening to podcasts can be inspiring, but if they don’t propel you into action then you simply used it as a tool to procrastinate action. This is where many people feel comfortable. You feel like you don’t have to take action because you don’t have the perfect plan. The person who wrote the book you’re reading or created the podcast you’re listening to took action, which propelled them into the position they’re in. Think of the people who every single year have the same health and fitness goals. They read blog, watch workout videos, maybe even buy prepared meals yet they still fail to hit the goals on a yearly basis. Watching a workout video doesn’t help change your health, but going on daily walks and eating green vegetables with each meal will. Take action will be the cornerstone of you being accountable to your standard. Some frequent small action will get you further ahead in time than most people will even think is possible. The last question to end this with is simple. What is your standard and what action do you need to take to make it a reality?

Nick Showman

Showtime Strength & Performance

www.showtimestrength.com