Raise Your Floor; Not Your Ceiling

Written By Emma Widmer

By: Amelia Lawson


I am your firstborn, overachiever, type A girl.  I love goals, looking ahead to the next challenge, and levelling up in any area of my life.  However, in an effort to pursue some big goals in the last few years, I have been left anxious, overstimulated, and convinced that rest meant failure.  

Recently a podcast host introduced an idea that’s stuck with me: instead of trying to raise your ceiling—your biggest goals and achievements—what if you focused on raising your floor? 

Your ceiling is what you aspire to; your floor is your foundation: the baseline habits that keep you steady even when life happens. When we chase higher ceilings without strengthening the floor, we risk burning out and falling lower than we started. But when we raise our floor, we create a solid foundation that supports us through the busy and the hard. 

So, I took a look at a few areas in my own life and asked, “What’s my floor (my baseline habits)? What’s my ceiling (aspirations)?” 

CEILING

  • Run a half marathon 

  • Complete a sprint triathlon 

  • Hit new PRs 

Fitness

FLOOR

  • Lift 2x/week 

  • Walk 3x/week 

  • 5 min mobility routine 2x/week 

  • Hit protein target 

CEILING

  • Everything organic 

  • Make snacks and bone broth from scratch 

  • Grow my own food 

Nutrition

FLOOR

  • Eat mostly whole foods 

  • Avoid gluten and dairy most of the time 

  • Cook at home for most dinners 

CEILING

  • Do thematic activities for seasons and holidays 

  • Play dates 

  • Community events 

Motherhood 

FLOOR

  • Play outside 

  • Talk about Jesus 

  • Praise effort and kindness 

  • Put my phone away 

CEILING

  • Join a Bible study 

  • Listen to Daily Audio Bible 

  • Serve in church 

  • Volunteer in the community 

Walk with Jesus 

FLOOR

  • Pray daily 

  • Read one section of the Bible daily 


CEILING

  • Weekly dates 

  • Book or Bible study together 

  • Finish one of the shows we’ve started 

Marriage 

FLOOR

  • Connect at dinner 

  • Say Good Morning and Good Night 

  • Face to Face communication over texting 

CEILING

  • Take on new projects 

  • Explore growth opportunities 

  • Staying current on market and competitors in field 

Career 

FLOOR

  • Meet annual goals 

  • Keep an open door 

Maybe your categories are different. Maybe for you it’s school, friendship, home, hobby, etc. The idea still holds. And can I be honest? When I first wrote out my floor, part of me was disappointed. My inner critic told me I could handle more. 

But this is only the floor, there’s nothing that is stopping me from chasing the ceiling. In some parts of this year, I was hitting some of those big goals: I grew peppers and oregano; I joined a Bible study; I took on a new project at work; and I ran a half marathon. But guess what? My husband and I still haven’t finished The Chosen; I did not make fall leaf wreaths with my kids; and I’ve bought bone broth at Aldi the last three weeks. 

Defining your floor brings clarity, but raising your floor brings growth. Raising your floor doesn’t mean doing more; it means strengthening your foundation by committing to small, sustainable habits. Making better food choices didn’t happen overnight. It was a series of small changes that now have become second nature to me. Adding in mobility work while I watch a show at night has been a seamless addition to my evening. I want to raise my floor in my prayer life, so maybe I’ll spend my morning commute praying for specific people. If I wanted to raise my floor in my friendships, maybe I’d start texting or calling one friend a week just to say I’m thinking of them. 

Those small, repeatable actions raise your floor over time. They become part of who you are— your normal—even when life is busy or unpredictable. 

Raising my floor has brought me more peace, contentment, and grace than chasing the ceiling ever did. It’s not about doing as much as I can tolerate—it’s about building a baseline I can thrive from. 

So, what’s your floor right now?   

Take a few minutes using the template below to break your life into categories, and then write down your floor and your ceiling in each.  Then, pick one small, attainable way to raise your floor this week—just one. 

Instead of always reaching higher, try grounding deeper. Raise your floor first—the place you land when life gets full. You’ll see that your ceiling rises with it. 

Amelia Lawson

I grew up in Ann Arbor, MI as the oldest of four. I graduated from Hope College in 2013 with a degree in secondary education, moved to Massachusetts for a 6th grade teaching position, where I met my husband. We moved to Hillsdale in 2018 where my husband recieved his Masters of Politics and I started working for Davis Middle School. I then moved to an admin assistant role in the then-Barney Charter School Initiative office six months later and then as an event managerin the K-12 Office for 3 years.  I came to Admissions in 2022 and have been here ever since working with campus recruitment by leading a few programs.  My husband and I have two girls, almost 5 and almost 2.5 and we attend the HUB.  I enjoy all things health/wellness and fitness; being in the sunshine and the outdoors; and managing my household (maybe not a hobby but something that fills my time).  I am a goal-setter, meticulous scheduler, and consistency over perfection sort of person.

Emma Widmer
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The Practice of Awe