You have heard the saying you get what you deserve. But you get what you tolerate and if you accept something then it becomes your standard. We all are guilty of not making efforts for many reasons and then we justify to ourselves why it is ok and then accept mediocrity. What we don't realize is when we do this we lower our standards and accept something less than we want or may deserve or want out of life. It then becomes a pattern and we fall into a routine of just accepting life as it is.
When you raise your standards you raise the bar and set an expectation you will not deviate from. This requires you to place value on things and live your life to a certain value proposition.
Let's look at a couple life examples how this might look when applied to our life. If your health is important to you then will need to decide how important it is and then set your standards accordingly. For people who compete in physique competitions they will cut certain foods and activities out of their life to intensely focus on what is needed to maintain a high fitness standard that allows them to compete. If that is important other things need to become less important like eating pizza and chips. You sacrifice for a higher standard and don't lower your fitness standard because you want to eat pizza because it smells so good.
Relationships are another area we lower our standards for. We first need to be our very best in all areas of our life and then we can raise our standards of what we want in others. If you are a mess don't expect a potential partner to be a 10 when you are a 5 lol. But if you are a 8 or 9 you need to expect the same. We fail to work on ourselves and then get stuck accepting what we can get. We also need to set beahvioral standards of how you should be treated. If you tolerate bad behavior from your partner it becomes your standard. If your partners behavior is not acceptable walk away. Don't tolerate less than you deserve because you want a relationship. When you are in relationships for the wrong reasons yiou tolerate what you shouldn't. Be your best and expoect the same from others. If they can't live to a higher standard walk away. You will get what you accept.
Life is funny because setting high standards pushes your mindset and beahvior towards the things you want most out of life. It becomes a pattern of how you live your life. So live and expect the most from yourself and others. If you don't you will end up getting what you deserve.