When people refer to ‘Shelf Life’ they are generally refering to something’s quality over a period and how useful the thing becomes.
When we people get old they are found to have lower productivity than younger individuals but does this mean that humans themselves have shelf lives? And does that mean that at a certain age a human becomes unproductive? If this is true then there should be a set time to achieve certain life goals? And in this modern day and age who sets these?
Setting Goals
Setting realistic goals requires putting your work ethics and timeframe parallel and in sync with one another, it requires diligently planning small steps this lead to the bigger outcome as this ultimately increases your chances for success, whether your goal is at home, in education or in the workplace. Setting realistic goals maximise your time and resources and helps keep you motivated.
Why is it important to set standards for yourself?
Setting good standards is crucial to making good decisions, therefore it's important to set standards consciously and to not take them for granted. Life offers no fairness so instead you must impose fairness on life. Set your standards realistically be dedicated and stick to them. It will make you more grateful for everything you have and everything you achieve along the way.
How to manage standards?
Define your standards in writing and make sure they are clear to you, when it’s requires to communicate to any required person.
Make small steps to deliver on standards.
Regularly check-in and see where you are with the standards you set for yourself.
How to set realistic expectations?
Something such as a goal or target that is realistic is one which you can sensibly expect to achieve.
Change Your Mentality
Know Your Limits
State Your Truth
Keep Your Objective
Stay Your Course
Do Not Get Distracted
Mental health outcomes of unrealistic standards
The stress of setting unrealistic expectations depletes many and creates distance, from people and even from doing the things we love. Perfectionism is an unrealistic standard that can never be met which creates stress and anxiety. You expect too much and sometimes fall short. The consequences of unrealistic goals is significant. Not reaching goals results in negative emotions, disappointment, frustration, and feeling like a failure. It also makes you more likely to quit, it has also been attributed to a less healthy life.
Conclusion
The truth is generally standards are set for ourselves by ourselves based on our up bringing and belief systems, whether it’s the age you want to do something by or the achievements that we have to accomplish by a certain period of time, when we examine our goals carefully they can be deemed as unrealistic and unachievable, because the truth about life is ‘you can plan a pretty picnic, but you can't predict the weather’ and can therefore potentially be creating unneeded stress on yourself. This unnecessary stress can cause you to like like an out of date item on a shelf, but when I reality, life has not just happened for you that way.
Our advice is stay true to yourself, don't go by what society, family or friends says you should do, do you just make sure to do you at the best of your ability (whatever level that is!)
Listen To Podcast S3 E7: Do People Have A Shelf Life?
