If you only turn up on the days when you feel good.

If you only train when it’s convenient.

If you only do the hard things when life’s going great and your head is in the right place.

You don’t have standards.

You have preferences.

And preferences fall apart the second that life really starts to test you.

That’s why MAPPS pillar 5 is Standards.

Your standards are who you are when no one’s watching.

They are not what you say you’ll do, they are what you do.

And here’s the harsh reality most people avoid.

// Life doesn’t care how you feel.

// Pressure doesn’t care how you feel.

// Your goals don’t care how you feel.

But your standards?

They decide everything.

Because when your standards are low.

Your effort drops.

Your patience drops.

Your discipline disappears.

And your confidence gets hit the hardest.

Behavioural psychology calls this “identity prediction error.”

Every time you say you’ll do something and don’t, your brain logs it as a broken prediction.  Therefore, you are basically teaching your brain not to trust you.

And it shows.

In your training.

In your business.

In your relationships.

In the way you carry yourself through the world.

But when your standards are high, and consistent, everything changes.

Your thinking is sharper.

Your decisions are quicker.

Your self respect grows.

You stop drifting and start leading yourself properly.

And this isn’t just my opinion (even though as you know, Mr Moylan is very rarely wrong!).  Research from Duke University agrees, showing that approx 45% of your daily behaviour is habit rather than motivation. That means that nearly half your life is run on autopilot, and habits are just your standards repeated.

James Clear talks about this, but those of us who grew up in any major inner city knew it long before any book.

When you repeatedly keep your own word, you build a stronger identity.

When you repeatedly break it, you destroy it.

Your standards are the small, silent habits that shape who you become.

I learned this young.

Growing up in Manchester, I watched my dad fix things because he told me that he “had the right tools for the job”. I would hear my mum saying things such as “If a job’s worth doing, it’s worth doing properly”.

I’m sure that many of you were raised in the same manner.

It was their level and their code that they refused to bend upon, no matter how they felt or how tired they were.  It’s their standards.

MAPPS is designed in the same way.

To give you the tools.

To give you the system.

And to give you the structure.

But you must still show up for yourself.

Especially on the days when you don’t feel like it.

That’s the entire point.

Anyone can perform on a good day.

But when you’re tired…

Or stressed…

Overwhelmed…

Or doubting yourself…

That’s where your standards kick in, and again the science shows it with a study from the University of Florida showing that people with clear standards and routines perform up to 30% better under stress, because the brain defaults to structure over emotion.

That’s why standards always beat motivation.

That’s where you become the person who lives their personal code, rather than someone who just talks a good game.

So, for this week:

// Do the basics - well, training, sleep, eating clean, hydration.

// Do one thing each day you don’t want to do.

// Live by your personal code. If you say you’ll do it, do it. If you don’t, you’re lying to yourself.

// Ruthlessly cull one bad habit (late night scrolling?).

And lead yourself by the standards from which you lead others.

Your standards are your foundations.

And when your foundations are strong, it’s the place you can build upon.

Have a great week,

Ric

P.S. I’m ready if you are, to lead you on this journey. Click HERE, and we will start straight away. No B.S about “waiting until New Year”.