This morning I was taking a jog, which I often do, while listening to an empowering recording, which I often do as well. The recording was a video of Tony Robbins talking about personal standards. In this video (which you can listen to here), Robbins talks about how people achieve based on who they define themselves to be. As he says,
“Think about your own life. I know that there have been areas of your life where some point you just shifted, you raised the standard and your life changed. Because whatever people have their identity attached to they live. We live who we believe we are. That’s just how it works.'”
In this recording, Robbins talks about how, when we are really effective in some area of life, it is because our personal standards are set at the level of effectiveness. As he points out, if you are highly athletic and in good shape, you take actions consistent with that view of yourself. The actions reflect the view of yourself, and at the same time, the view of yourself is consistent with your actions.
As I was jogging, I was reflecting on those areas of life where I do extremely well (I wrote about something similiar in an earlier post). Side note: everyone has areas where they do extremely well. If you look at your attitude in those areas, or your personal standards or way of defining yourself, as Robbins talks about, you will see how much it makes sense that you do well in that area.
So when it comes to jogging, I am extremely consistent and empowered. I had to take a break from jogging for the past week and a half because recent California fires made the air outside unhealthy. Although I did not join a gym or borrow a treadmill to get the runs in anyway, I eagerly awaited the day when the air outside was healthy enough for me to comfortably go running. So what was I doing this morning? Happily running for the first time in almost two weeks, even though it rained for most of the run. I did 5 miles, felt great joy as I run, and also enjoyed the benefit of being fully charged after a nice long rest from running.
As I said, I have an empowered view of myself when it comes to running. I am athletic, consistent, and healthy. I love exercise and do it regularly.
Again, I need to be clear that I’m not trying to brag here. My running acumen is valuable, yet there are people out there who make marathons look easy. All I’m trying to do is focus on an area of my life where my personal standards really serve me. As I have repeatedly said in this blog, one key to satisfaction in life is to focus on things that feel good (even if that topic is the trees outside). It doesn’t matter so much what it is, it just matters that you feel good when you think about it.
We all have personal standards in some area or another that serve us. If we are intentional with our thinking, we can milk those areas for all they are worth! In that process, we will be happier, and it can give us increased energy, eventually, to adopt new personal standards in other areas of life we are ready to master.
Just for fun, I’m going to list a few more areas of my life that tend to work really well, and what my attitude or personal standard is:
- Food: I love food, I enjoy it, it usually makes me happy, I love the food I eat, I don’t worry about it much, I just expect there to be good food around, I make food choices that feel good, I have a good time with my food life (Can you guess how my experience with food goes? Pretty dang well I bet!)
- Family: I love being with family. Not only at home with my wife and our cats, but also when we go visit family elsewhere for special occasions and holidays, we have a lot of fun, make music and play games, share our creativity, and enjoy being together. What fun we have! (So obviously this experience is likely to go well)
- Movies: I love movies. There are so many awesome movies to see, it seems there are always interesting movies coming out at the theaters, I get so inspired watching movies, I love seeing movies with my wife, and we have movies at home, and so many great movies at our fingertips. I love movies (Sound like someone you want to see movies with, right?)
- Rain: I love rain! It is so fun. It is raining outside right now, and I am filled with joy and gratitude about it. It is so nice to watch, and so cozy inside.
So to be clear, I could have made a list of some areas where I have struggled instead of thrived, but that’s not what I’m focusing on right now. Maybe some other time I will do that. Right now I’m milking the good stuff!
So often in life, we are taught to “face reality,” even if that doesn’t feel good. Yet how you feel matters. Nothing is more important than that I feel good. So right now, why not face the stuff that feels good? And why not examine how you think in that area? In everything that works well in our life, there are principles at work to aid us, and our personal sense of identity is part of that.