Setting a New Standard

Most people don’t struggle because they aren’t working hard enough. They struggle because the standard they’re trying to meet doesn’t fit who they are or the life they’re actually living.

I see this constantly, especially in sports. People show up, put in the work, care deeply, and still feel frustrated or stuck. Not because they lack ability, but because they’re measuring themselves against a version of themselves that isn’t realistic for this season, or against someone else entirely. When that’s the standard, effort never feels like enough.

Setting a new standard isn’t about lowering expectations. It’s about making them honest so the work has somewhere to land.

Standards vs. Outliers

There is real value in studying the greats. Tiger Woods. Michael Phelps. Serena Williams. Simone Biles. Those names matter because they show what is possible at the extreme edge of human performance.

They are also outliers.

Outliers are not the baseline. They are the exception. What often gets missed are the years of preparation, the sacrifices, the environments, and the support systems that allowed those performances to happen. When people skip that context and jump straight to comparison, it doesn’t sharpen focus. It creates pressure and self doubt that have nothing to do with development.

Your job isn’t to become an outlier. Your job is to build a standard that fits you, your life, and what you are actually willing to commit to right now.

Effort Isn’t the Issue

For most people, effort is not the missing piece. Caring is not the missing piece. What’s missing is alignment.

When effort is poured into a standard that doesn’t fit, burnout shows up quietly. People work hard but feel like they’re constantly falling behind. Progress becomes difficult to recognize because the bar keeps moving or was never realistic to begin with. Over time, that disconnect wears people down.

Effort starts to feel productive again when the standard allows progress to be seen and trusted.

Where Your Standard Comes From

In my workbook, The Game Plan: Managing Your Champ and Chump, the chapter "Personal and Professional Reflection of Self" centers on building a personal philosophy and getting clear on what actually matters to you.

You cannot set a meaningful standard without honest reflection. A real standard reflects your purpose, your priorities, and what you’re truly willing to invest. Your time. Your energy. Your focus. The risks you’re willing to take and the costs you’re willing to absorb. When those pieces aren’t considered, the standard gets built outside of reality and eventually becomes fragile.

Reflection brings alignment. It forces you to be honest about what you want, what you’re willing to give, and what success looks like in this season of your life. That doesn’t make the standard easier to reach, but it does make it intentional. The foundation feels stronger. The process becomes easier to trust. Confidence can grow because the work finally matches the expectation.

That’s what makes a standard sustainable. Not copying someone else’s results or chasing an image of who you think you should be, but building something that actually pushes you forward. That’s a real standard. And that’s what produces the greats.