Connoisseur Notes #5 - Set Your Own Standards / Aim High

Most of my life when I told people what I wanted to do they always gave me a look of disbelief or out right laughed at me. Of course alot of times that killed my spirit and I gave up on a few things. Over the years what I realized was that I was allowing the perception of others to set the standard of what I wanted to achieve. I was allowing other people doubts to affect me when I actually was not even doubting myself and my abilities. This woke me up and I took a step back to observe those same people and this is what I noticed.

1) They were at the same point in their lives for years.

2) They weren’t looking for change.

3) The people they associated themselves with did exactly what they did.

I was like wow, these people are comfortable just living at a certain level and didn’t want anyone else surpass them because they choose not to do any better for themselves. I think I did literally say to myself “oh hell no” and from then it was around that time people started calling me “The Chris” because after that I was on, I was everywhere doing business and people kept seeing me and saying “Wait this is the guy, this is ‘The Chris’ you was telling me about, I saw this young man in action at the last meeting”..it was funny for a while actually going places being addressed like that. My point is that I stopped allowing people to set my standards for me. I didn’t mind aiming high and missing. All it meant was I just had to look at my strategy and go at it again.

Too many people are afraid of aiming high. If your goals don’t scare you, it isn’t big enough. If people aren’t saying you’re crazy to your face or even behind your back, it means that you’re still down on their level. Plus you’ll realize as I did that most of those people have settled for where they are. People like that I’ve actually removed from my life and I keep them at a certain distance away from me.

Do not allow negative influences from people that have nothing to do with your life, your goals or standard of living affect you. Elevate your thoughts, elevate your goals. Tell yourself you’d rather aim high and miss than aim low and hit because aiming low means you never look up!

Live, Learn, Inspire!

Christopher Crossley | Modern Connoisseur