Dear Family,
When most people talk about growth, they talk about the ceiling.
“How high can I go?”
“What’s the maximum I can achieve?”
But the truth is, your ceiling matters far less than your floor.
Your floor is your baseline, the minimum acceptable standard of performance, discipline, and commitment. It’s what you can fall back on when life throws chaos your way. More importantly, your floor defines what you don’t do.
Dr. Benjamin Hardy, who coined the phrase “Raise Your Floor,” puts it plainly: to be exceptional, you can’t engage in average anything.
Most people and businesses fail to grow because they maintain a low floor. They justify actions that contradict their goals. They lie to themselves about their performance. They hold onto habits, relationships, or commitments that no longer fit. Hardy calls this the “mess of pottage,” trading away future excellence for short-term comfort.
Raising your floor is uncomfortable because it forces you to confront deficiencies.
It demands that you expose and elevate. That might mean:
- Letting go of team members who aren’t committed to the new standard.
- Walking away from clients or projects that fall below the profitability or strategic threshold.
- Replacing habits or processes that create inconsistency and dilute focus.
But here’s the paradox: once you commit, the tension disappears. The honesty brings relief. And suddenly, there’s new energy to rise higher.
As a new father, this lesson is deeply personal. Every “yes” I give to an opportunity may also be a “no” to time with Madison and Christian. That reality forces me to be crystal clear about my floor; what I will and will not allow into my life. Because if it lowers my floor, I don’t have room for it. Not when my daughter is watching, and not when my wife deserves the best of me.
For me, raising my floor has looked like:
- Getting my workouts in, even if it’s just a short session.
- Taking 20 minutes each week to review our family’s spending plan.
- Writing down thoughts and reflections, even when I don’t feel inspired.
None of these things raise my ceiling overnight. But they protect my floor and that’s what creates long-term consistency.
Normalizing Excellence isn’t about occasionally touching greatness.
It’s about ruthlessly eliminating the unscalable, refusing to fall below a certain standard, and aligning your choices with what matters most. So I’ll leave you with this question:
What in your life is lowering your floor and what would happen if you finally let it go?
From LUX, With Love,
Matt
0 comments