Never settle with your standards

Lionel Ritchie said to a contestant on American Idol, "If you respect yourself the world respects you. To get respect you have to command it". My standard when it comes to respect is, "you have to give respect to get respect". Sadly, I feel that we are watching as respect for others is disappearing in our world. Respect should be one of those standards that is universal, everyone has it, and holds it in high regard.  

 “Don’t settle for what life gives you; make life better and build something.” 

– Ashton Kutcher

I love this quote by Ashton. Right now, I am watching several people in my life work on making their lives better. For a variety of reasons, they have had a blip in their life path, and they have decided to work on solutions. No one is spared having crappy things happen to them. Bad things do happen to good people. During those times there is little choice except to dig deep and make decisions to have a better life. I admire how people deal with difficult situations and move forward doing the best they can. It seems, when things get tough the tough get going.  

A wise woman once said to me, "if you don't know what to do, do nothing". This did not mean, never decide, she meant for me to give myself time. She also said, "once you make a decision stick with it". In other words, don't change your mind, tweak as necessary, but make it work. I realize as I write this, this is my decision-making standard. I know that by not reacting, the right solution will eventually come. I have said to myself more often than I want to admit, "this is what I decided so I have to make it work".   

For some reason, I have had several conversations recently, about negative people. Being around negative people, can affect us and we don't even know it. We lower our standard and we may become negative right along with them. As a rule, I am a positive person, and I know it brings out the best in me. I can usually let negativity roll off me, but that always depends on the space I am in. I became very aware of this, during a conversation with a dear friend. She pointed out to me how I spoke differently about each of my friends. She helped me understand that I respect my friends differently, depending on the standard we have set up in our relationship.  

                                                   

As I reflect on this post, I realize I like the word, "standard". I also like that I am becoming aware of my standards. As humans we tend to think our standards are the best. Like everything in life, our standards are just that, "ours".  They work for only one person. I hope you have had a moment to reflect on your own standards. If we practice and keep our standards high, it will keep us true to ourselves.