When you set high standards, you will fail high above the successes of your peers.
High Standards Produce High Performance.
That is one of the central tenants of how to be a successful man.
In the modern world, we have done away with standards. In the feminine-dominated schools, even the grading systems are being done away with. Because supposedly it would not be very nice to fail someone even if they give no effort in their class. So we let everyone pass their classes because we do not want to hurt any feelings. Sensitivity is mass-producing weakness. Weakness is being churned out at a rate that would make even the Chinese jealous.
The problem is that eliminating standards does not help people feel good about themselves. Placing guard rails between kids and every miniature failure is not making them into strong men. It is making them into weak men who have no experience with anything in life. They have nothing that has refined them or made them into anything better. Men have no standards to compare themselves to. What is a man supposed to do without a standard?
Again, high standards produce high performance. It is simple as that.
I – Training Should be Harder than War
Retired Navy SEAL Jocko Willionk has recounted multiple times on his podcast that SEAL training is designed to be more difficult than war. After leaving active duty, Jocko was in charge of SEAL training on the west coast. His goal was to make training simulations to realistic, so life-like and stressful that men would find that facing enemies on foreign soil was easy.
The standard of training was so high that when men left SEAL training and waged actual war, they found it less stressful than training. How is that for standards?
Once, when asked about the ferocity at which Roman soldiers trained, a Roman general responded to the question with the following statement:
“They train with the intensity of war, so war has little effect on them”.
Other proverbs from the centuries are equally motivating:
“A pint of sweat is worth a gallon of blood”
General George S. Patton
“It’s the losers in life who go after the things they know they can achieve. Go after something you aren’t quite sure about”
Greg Plitt, Army Ranger. Retired
“The more you sweat in training, the less you bleed in battle”
Navy SEAL Maxim
Once there was a pitcher known for conditioning his arm to throw extra pitches. When the average number of pitches thrown was 600, he conditioned himself to throw 900. So when games with extra innings came his way, he was prepared for them. The team did not even need to call in the backup pitcher. His standard of conditioning was higher than his opponents, so he outlasted them.
Whatever you aim for in life, you will likely get. But even if you do not get it, you will earn just slightly less than your goal. If you set the goal to make an A on a test if you fail your goal you make a B. If your goal is a B, you might make a C. It would be better to start with the high goal because even if you miss it, you will still be more successful than most people.
II – High Standards give you something to aim at, but they also give you a clear definition of failure.
This is one of the many reasons why so many religious people dislike the Old Testament. There was a clear standard for behavior and it was heavy and difficult. Every man knew what he had to do and was held responsible for it.
Modern, weak men latch on to the teachings of Christ because they have more gray areas in them. Note: they do not have much gray area, but there is enough for people to wedge themselves into and remove the high standard of living God requires. These men also chronically avoid the clear-cut, hard teachings of Christ.
The teaching of Christ on marriage in Matthew 19 is an example of this. After breaking down the regulations for marriage and forbidding divorce outside extramarital sex, his disciples were even shocked at the degree of discipline Christ required. They responded to His hard teachings by saying that it would be better for a man never to get married.
Christ then doubled down on the teaching.
Instead of saying that His command was just a figure of speech, He went on to describe the degree of seriousness of the subject of marriage. Christ said that some men cut off their own testicles so they can be a better fit for the Kingdom of God. Does that sound like a low standard to you? Or does it sound like some men take their God extremely seriously and act on it?
Do not get too caught up in low-standard thinking. Christ requires more of you than you think, contrary to what you hear in the effeminate, modern religious world.
III – High Standards ensure progress.
High standards prevent stagnation and complacency. When you have some high objective to aim for, you cannot afford to be complacent. You cannot afford to stand still and do nothing. The man with standards has no choice but to improve himself. And the man with high standards has no choice but to improve himself greatly.
What gets measured gets accomplished. Without a standard, we cannot measure ourselves and our progress. With frequent, accurate self-assessment, we will continue to spin in circles, never improving very much. Maybe here and there we gain an inch, but we never make the progress we know we are capable of.
A standard is an ideal that we measure ourselves against. We should regularly take an inventory of ourselves and our abilities to see if we are stagnating or progressing. And it is critical for us to make progress in this life. To stay the same is to die.
IV – High Standards produce intensity and seriousness.
We will rise to the level of our standards when it comes to performance. The least serious Christians are the ones with the lowest standards of performance. Low standards mean low intensity. Low intensity means no growth.
We are going to behave according to our standard of behavior and what we think the rules of God are. If we perceive God as lax in punishment, we will be lax in service.
Low intensity = Low growth
It is critical that we be exceptionally hard on ourselves and force ourselves to higher standards. the most difficult times of our life will produce the greatest results. Harsh winds make strong trees. Hard years make hardy crops. Everywhere you look in nature you see that when the environment becomes more stressful, the weak die, and the strong become even stronger.
There must be intensity and effort in order to improve. We have to add heat if we are going to succeed. A million-dollar cake recipe is worthless if we do not have a stove to supply heat to that cake. We will put a bowl of batter in a cold cube and pull a bowl of batter right back out in an hour. Without the intensity factor, the best plan in the world is worthless. Without high standards, the greatest intentions in the world are meaningless.
V – High Standards Purge Low Performers.
People set low standards so everyone can be included in the group. This is common in youth and college groups at church. No standard is set, no accountability is in place, and no one improves. Because nobody needs to be left out of the group *sniff*.
When in reality the best thing you can do for people is hold them to a high standard of behavior. If they truly want to be a part of the group, they will improve. If they do not want to be a part of the group, they will quit.
It would be much better to have them quit early than for them to hang around for years just going through the motions.
Spartans would be mocked, even exiled for being fat. The standard of fitness was so high that you could lose your home for being out of shape. How is that for a high standard? But we are more “civilized” than that. We let people stay in the group no matter how spiritually out of shape they are and no matter how much they are dragging the rest of the group down.
When standards aren’t enforced, low performers remain in the Church as parasites. That is not meant to be rude, it is simply the truth. When religion becomes a fun little get-together or a social club, every parasite in the world can tolerate it. When they are no standards, no accountability, people will be parasites.
It is easy and convenient to go through the motions. A person in modern religion can go under the radar for his entire life. No one will ever ask him about his spiritual life. No one will ever hold him to a higher standard. The average Christian can be the same person at 70 that they were at 7. If you want to change this, you need to impose standards.
When no heat is applied to gold, it is not refined and the impurities remain inside of it. Without standards, impurities remain in the Church (1 Cor 5:9, 1 Peter 1:7).
VI – High standards provide a framework for evaluation and judgment.
Even though we do not like talking about judgment in the Church, it is incredibly important. We are to judge with righteous judgment. It is our job to judge ourselves. We also need to hold each other accountable since most people do not have the strength to stand on their own.
1 Cor 5:3 – Paul judges another man because he has a standard by which he may judge and by which he also judges himself.
Matt 7:1 – This verse does not teach the “don’t judge” doctrine that the world thinks. but rather to judge with righteous judgment. Righteous judgement is a result of equal standards by which judgment can take place (John 7:24). If we agree that we have a standard by which to judge actions (i.e. the Word of God) then we have the capacity to make righteous judgments,
– We need clear evaluations
The eminently qualified marine and Christian. The marines and other branches of the military have performance evaluations that every member must go through. In these evaluations, a person is ranked based on how they are performing in various areas of their careers. this lets them know where they are performing well and where they need to concentrate and improve.
We have no such evaluation in the Church, but it would be highly useful. Perform your own performance evaluation on yourself. How are you performing in the various aspects of your spiritual life? Where are you succeeding and where could you improve upon?
Be ruthless when you evaluate yourself, No one ever became successful by lying to themselves about where they were or about what their strength is. Be honest and hard on yourself, this is the only way to improve. Evaluate yourself ruthlessly and set high standards for your behavior.