Respect Your Life

Penelope Trunk's recent post about business travel over at "Brazen Careerist" ended with ...

The bottom line is that you need to respect your life. Your life cannot be on hold while you travel. The travel, if it’s really frequent, sort of is your life. So the values you have—be spiritual, be frugal, be healthy—have to prevail during your travel. This is not vacation travel. This is not a vacation from your life. Business travel IS your life.

How many of us lose respect for our life (regardless of whether or not we are traveling)?

When you eat something that you know you should not... you are disrespecting your life. When you don't live up to the values that are important to you... you are disrespecting your life. When you allow other people to disrespect you and treat you poorly... you are disrespecting your own life. When you don't step up to the challenges in your life ... you are disrespecting the opportunities for growth in your life.

Your Wonderful Life

We get out of life what we will accept. Tony Robbins said, "The quality of our life is based on the standards that we set for ourselves." If you don't set the standards for what you will accept in your life, there are plenty of people who will do it for you... and most likely you will not be happy with the results. Look around... the life you are leading is a result of the standards you have set for yourself (and your respect - or lack of respect - for those standards) .

For example ...

For many years, I worked in a job that was going nowhere. My salary had hit a plateau and there were really no options for advancement. In hindsight* I should have taken the advice of my wife (now ex-wife) and moved on to a more challenging job. (* Have you ever looked back at hindsight and realized you had your head up your ass?) Ever since graduating from college I've wanted to own and run my own business. I've flirted with it a few times... as a real estate agent in the late 80's-early 90's and part time with a couple web businesses... but I never had the gump-shin (spelling?) to quit a "perfectly good job" and do whatever it takes to make my own business a success.

Setting a new standard...

Things are different now. I am finding ways to create a business and learning more about real-life business than I ever did in graduate business school. It is still not easy... but the standards are rising and, along with them, my prospects for the future.

Where else can this idea be applied?

Health... I've started running nearly every day. A run is part of my standard routine. I've also begun to pick up fresh vegetables and fruits on a more regular basis so that I have them in the house and can eat healthy.

Socially... I have made a decision to be more open to people and engage them more fully. I've made a boat-load of friends through my experiences with Toastmasters and I'm not done yet. I'm constantly working to stretch my comfort zone ... and make other people comfortable at the same time. It is amazing the connections that can be made if you just reach out !

What standards do you have in your life?

Are you respecting your own values on a daily basis?

Thank you Penelope for bringing this to our attention. You have my respect !