I was reading Seth Godin’s post – Bar gymnastics about people who set a easy standard to meet but don’t wish to  push the bar higher due to the effort required.  A thought came to me whilst reading the Seth’s post that we often don’t raise the bar because there is no instant gratification, you need to raise the bar, meet that level and then consistently meet the same level until someone like your boss, coach or friends is convinced you can do it again and again and then gives you congratulations or encouragement.
We are in an age of  facebook, twitter, texting and youtube were we experience consistent instant gratification and get a high from it. So, when we don’t experience instant gratification for doing something we often just set our standard to the easiest level. We also start setting the bar lower when learning  as children as soon as we realise that if we meet the standard there is no real gratification for raising the bar (ok maybe a gold star) and if we do raise the bar we can experience the  ‘tall poppy’ syndrome. So, if your peers are at a certain level, it takes a different type of person to raise the bar and go against the norm. These people who consistently raise their standard are often successful through life whether in business, sports or life.
There is no one who is going to give you instant gratification for everything you do and there is no such thing as an overnight success. Â Setting your own standard and then exceeding it is more satisfying and creates a sense of achievement which the results in more drive to continually raise the bar and to seek satisfaction in all parts of life.