Decide today what you will no longer negotiate, tolerate, or excuse.
Raise your standards so high that average becomes super uncomfortable.
Do you sit down with a notebook at the beginning of the new year, start writing out goals for the year ahead, and almost immediately begin comparing those dreams to what happened last year? If so, don’t feel alone. That is how most of us set our goals also.
“I only sold $ last year.”
“I’ve never run more than a 5K.”
“Our company has never been bigger than 6 employees.”
“I’ve never spoken publicly to a large group.”
“I’ve never lost the weight.”
Without even realizing it, we allow yesterday’s reality to become tomorrow’s limitation. Most people don’t dream based on what God is capable of. They dream based on what they’ve already accomplished.
Can I ask you a very serious question?
Who told you your future has to resemble your past? You did!
Somewhere along the way we’ve convinced ourselves that because we’ve never done something before, we’re somehow disqualified from believing it could happen. Yet when I read and study more and more from Scripture, I don’t see a God who asks people to compare tomorrow with yesterday. I see a God constantly calling ordinary people into futures they couldn’t possibly imagine on their own.
John Maxwell said it SO good… “People overestimate the event and underestimate the process.”
We become fascinated with the mountain peak while ignoring the thousands of faithful steps it takes to get there. We spend so much energy trying to raise our ceiling that we completely overlook the thing that actually determines our future.
Our floor.
Your ceiling is your potential. Your floor is your standard.
Your ceiling is what you’re capable of on your very best day. Your floor is who you refuse to become on your very worst day.
Most people are obsessed with increasing their potential. Very few are committed to increasing their standards.
That reminds me of one of the saddest stories in all of Scripture.
Esau – Esau was the oldest son of Isaac. As the firstborn, he possessed the birthright. In those days, that wasn’t simply a larger inheritance. It represented leadership, blessing, influence, responsibility, and the future God had prepared for his family.
One afternoon, Esau came in from working the fields exhausted and starving. Jacob happened to have a pot of stew cooking. Seeing the opportunity, Jacob made what should have been the most ridiculous offer imaginable.
“I’ll give you the stew… if you give me your birthright.”
Reading that story today almost makes you laugh.
Who in their right mind would trade a lifetime of blessing for one temporary meal?
Yet the more I’ve thought about that story over the years, the more I’ve realized we make that exact trade almost every day.
Every time we choose comfort over discipline…
Every time we choose distraction over purpose…
Every time we choose immediate gratification over long-term obedience…
Every time we settle for average because excellence feels inconvenient…
We’re selling our birthright for a bowl of stew.
Our stew just looks different.
Sometimes it’s another hour scrolling social media.
Sometimes it’s the snooze button at 5am.
Sometimes it’s avoiding the difficult conversation.
Sometimes it’s saying, “I’ll start Monday.”
Sometimes it’s refusing to set a goal that scares us because we’re afraid someone might think we’re crazy if we fail.
That’s the tragedy.
Esau wasn’t thinking about his future. He was only thinking about his appetite.
And that’s exactly how the enemy works. He wants to convince us to exchange what God wants to do over decades for something that satisfies us for a few minutes.
Dan Martell says “Your standards determine your success more than your goals.”
That statement should challenge every leader.
Goals are exciting. Standards are transformational.
Anybody can write 10 ambitious goals in the front of a planner. Very few people are willing to become the kind of person capable of accomplishing them.
That’s why I’ve become less fascinated with goals and more fascinated with standards.
What books do I refuse NOT to read?
How many mornings will I refuse to miss with God?
What conversations will I no longer avoid?
What promises will I refuse to break to my family, team, or those I mentor and coach?
What excuses have become unacceptable in my life?
Those are floor questions.
And here’s what I’ve discovered. When you raise your floor, your ceiling has NO choice but to follow.
The greatest leaders I’ve ever met aren’t necessarily more gifted than everyone else. They simply stopped negotiating with themselves. They don’t negotiate with integrity. They don’t negotiate with preparation. They don’t negotiate with showing up. They don’t negotiate with keeping their word.
They raised the floor.
So here’s the question I’ve been asking myself, and maybe it’s one worth asking yourself too.
Are your goals limited by your potential… or are they limited by your memory?
Because all too often, we compare next year’s dreams to last year’s story.
We compare next year’s goals to last year’s revenue.
Next year’s health to last year’s waistline.
Next year’s marriage to last year’s struggles.
Next year’s leadership to last year’s failures.
What if God wants to write a completely different story?
An old friend told me when I started Atlas (and I wish I had done it), “write or journal down what you think your life will look like in 5-10 years, and hide that away and re-visit it at those milestones.”
My life looks NOTHING like what I thought it would have 15 years ago. Why? Because without even realizing it, I refused to let my floor become my ceiling. I refused to let last year’s story become this year’s standard. And that was never really by intention during my first 10 years of leadership. But my life changed when I realized how powerful that concept was!
What if the only thing standing between where you are and where you can go is the standard you’re willing to accept?
Stop asking, “What’s realistic?”
Start asking, “What’s possible if I become the person I’m willing to become?”
Raise your standards. Raise your discipline. Raise your expectations. Raise your floor.Because one day you’ll either look back and realize you protected your birthright… or you’ll discover you traded it away for a bowl of stew.
Don’t let temporary comfort rob you of an unbelievable calling!
Genesis 25:34 says “Thus Esau despised his birthright.”
Read that verse again. Esau didn’t lose his birthright because Jacob was a stronger dude.
He lost it because he stopped valuing it. The same question confronts every one of us today.
What birthright has God placed in your hands… and what bowl of stew are you being tempted to trade it for?
At the end of the day, your future won’t be determined by the goals you wrote down – it will be determined by the standards you choose to live by. Be intentional about your floor. Decide today what you will no longer negotiate, tolerate, or excuse. Raise your standards so high that average becomes super uncomfortable. Don’t let temporary comfort steal an eternal calling. The choice is yours, and that choice is made every single day!