Raise Your Standards, Not Your Goals

Baseball gave the young Ed Mylett his first taste of self-esteem and camaraderie, but it also gave him something just as important. “Baseball was the place where I learned I could outwork people and do better than I thought I could,” Mylett said in a recent episode of Corporate Competitor Podcast.

“When guys would show up and do batting practice, I would take one more round at the end of practice. When we took our lap at the end of the day, I’d do one more lap around the field. When we took our turns shagging fly balls, I’d shag for one more hour.”

Mylett’s work ethic enabled him to parlay his athletic skills into a place in Division 1 baseball at the University of the Pacific, where he led the nation in stolen bases. But the biggest lesson he learned came after formal education when a well-intentioned mentor showed him some tough love after Mylett had been repeatedly showing up late to meetings.

Recalled Mylett, “I was working at World Financial Group and someone said to me, ‘I love you. You’re a good man and I care about you, but this is not a standard you should live your life by. It’s disrespectful and speaks volumes about your personal conduct. If you can’t get to a meeting on time, how are you going to do business correctly?’”

Mylett learned his lesson both quickly and well–well enough, in fact, to go on to build WFG into one of the most prolific financial services businesses in the world. He took his learnings and passion for coaching to the ultimate level and authored two world-class books: Maxout Your Life: Strategies for Becoming an Elite Performer (2008) and the highly anticipated The Power of One More: The Ultimate Guide to Happiness and Success, due out June 1, 2022.

In his new book, Mylett discusses how he uses neurolinguistic programming to help leaders develop the kind of habits that promote positivity and higher personal and professional standards, including:

• 6:00   Why you are one handshake away from achieving your dream.
• 14:00  The reason why the people you spend time with determine your future.
• 17:00  How to raise your standards, not your goals.
• 28:00  The most important prerequisite for accountability.

“The truth is most of us can only expect to accomplish around 20 percent of goals,” noted Mylett, who believes that the one more mindset offers a check against that old enemy–bad habits. “In my books and my coaching, I tell people that if they focus on what they fear, the world will present a fearful face. But if they visualize their dreams and goals, these will appear everywhere they look.”

Check out the full Corporate Competitor Podcast interview archive and subscribe to new episodes.