HOW HIGH CAN YOU JUMP?
The expression “raising the bar” means a lot of different things to different people.
But we all know what the basic meaning alludes to.
“Raising the bar” refers to a sport where athletes jump over a suspended bar without touching it and knocking it down.
Each time they do it successfully, the bar gets raised and the other competitors must match or exceed their efforts.
In photography, the bar gets raised by a lot of different influences.
New cameras raise the bar for technical excellence.
Photographers raise the bar for visual excitement.
The industry raises the bar for entry into the top 10%.
The bar is raised in nearly every endeavor these days.
From making music to driving a truck.
Mediocrity doesn’t climb with the bar, it gets stagnant and fails.
What was top of the heap 20 years ago may only be mediocre meh today.
But most of these influences are from outside of us.
External forces.
That guy did this to raise the bar. She did that to raise the bar.
What about our own bar?
Are we not able to raise our own standards?
Of course we are.
But resistance gets in the way.
Our self-tapes play incessantly.
“That’s too different”.
“I don’t know how.”
“It’s good enough.”
“Don’t rock the boat”.
“If it ain’t broke…”
“I’m too old.”
“I don’t know how.”
“Those people are special.”
These are the mantras of that drown out the sound of the welding.
The welding of the bar to the pole so it cannot be raised.
We fear no more because we have eliminated the cause of that dread…
The fear of the bar being raised and our failure to clear it.
But see – that’s the thing.
We worry about not making it.
In High-jump, the sport, the pit the athletes jump into is filled with sand.
And there are soft barriers all around the apparatus for those who fail to clear it.
In other words, you are most assuredly EXPECTED to miss the bar while trying to jump over a higher placement.
EXPECTED to.
And everyone does.
They take a run at the new height, and they jump like they are used to – and knock it down.
Then they correct a bit… move this way, try this approach, fail a bunch of times while figuring it out.
Then – BOOM – they fly right over it.
They have reset their standards.
Reset their goals.
Reset their output.
And the bar gets moved up a notch.
And for the best of us, it is a constantly repeating challenge.
But one that we not only MUST endure, we must be obsessed by the desire to clear it.
This drive to get better has to infuse every part of your being.
Better at business.
Better at shooting.
Better at marketing.
Better at media.
Better at engagement.
Better at networking.
Better at… being better.
And these changes are not radical.
The bar doesn’t move 10 feet at a time.
It moves a fraction of an inch.
Change is incremental.
Small changes end up being big changes over time.
If you dedicated yourself to becoming 1% better at everything you do over the course of a month, in less than a year you would be 10% better.
And that 10% can do an amazing amount of change in your work, clients, billing, and bottom line.
Don’t push for wholesale change – raising the bar so far no one can clear it.
Raise it a tiny fraction each day.
Month by month the changes start to show.
You are clearing the bar you set.
Awesome.
“Clank”… That was you… setting the bar a bit higher.
Now get after it.