TOLERATE or ELIMINATE?

My water wasn’t even spiked New Years Eve 2018, when I committed to something WAY out of my box.

Taking over the free local newspaper as editor..... for fun.

Insanity? Yes.

However, I have met wonderful people, and one of the contributors is my friend Kevin Wright.  

He’s a big fish in business, but don’t let that scare you.

He is a motivator, so I titled his column #MOTIVATE.

Today I am sharing his article from the last edition that motivated me.

After reading this article I made a HUGE shift and took a step in my life I have been putting off for over two years.

I bet YOU will too!

ENJOY!

Karen

TOLERATE or ELIMINATE?

In my experience as a business leader, people complain a lot and about a lot of different things. I sometimes find myself getting complaining too. Assessing “root cause” is something that I find myself chasing all the time in my career. Most of the time the root cause of a person’s pain, injustice, insult, or suffering is something within their control. But instead of changing their circumstances, they chose to TOLERATE them instead!  

If you can agree, an organization’s culture is defined by what it tolerates, you should also be able to grasp that your personal life will be shaped by the irritating things you tolerate too. Although my use of the word tolerance may seem contrary to how it is often used today, my goal is to challenge you about how the concept of tolerance applies to your personal life.  In order to do that, I have to make sure you are clear on what tolerance means.

Here is a working definition I put together to help myself understand it better:

Long Version: Your tolerance is your willingness to put up with something which you do not necessarily like or agree. The greater your tolerance, the larger your capacity and longer your ability to endure continued subjection to that something, without a reaction to change that something.

Short Version:  You put up with things you don’t enjoy for a long time and do nothing about it.

Is there an area of your life you don’t like and yet you have the ability to make a change?

If your answer is “yes,”instead of doing something to change it do you just complain about it?  Hopefully, you see how crazy complaining sounds because allowing an upsetting situation to continue and then complain instead of figuring out how to change the situation sounds crazy to me.  After reading this, I hope you will no longer be able to “turn a blind eye” on the real sources of why you complain. And as a result of deciding what you will and won’t tolerate, your complaining should actually stop.  Forever.

When it concerns movements like anti-discrimination, there is a well-founded call for people to be more “tolerant.”  When it comes to the beliefs and backgrounds of other people, I agree. But, there are other movements that rightly ask you to practice intolerance.  Anti-bullying, anti-drug and anti-harassment are great examples. In addition to those, in terms of beliefs and behaviors that are holding you back, I suggest you should develop your own zero tolerance policy.  In order to get you thinking in that direction, here are 5 areas which I suggest practicing a little intolerance would be a good thing:

5 Areas To Practice Personal Intolerance

1.  Unworthy Effort

Don’t allow a mediocre or bad use of your talents.

2.  Unhealthy Lifestyle

Don’t put up with poor diet, sleep patterns or a sedentary lifestyle.

3.  Unfulfilling Job

Don’t permit years to tick by on something you don’t love to do.

4.  Unhappy Relationships

Don’t endure poor choices of associates or poor treatment from others.

5.  Unwealthy Finances

Don’t accept low pay or escalating debt.

If you work to become intolerant of the list above, you would remove both the “un” from the front of the words and also some poor behaviors and beliefs from your life.

In order to stop complaining and live the life you desire, you have a simple choice:TOLERATE or ELIMINATE.

Not happy or feel unfulfilled with some things in your life right now?  You can either keep putting up with it or do something about it. Below is a list of things you can either continue to endure or remove.  In the case of tolerance, just keep doing what you are doing. In the case of elimination, you will need to discover the root of the problem and remove it:

TOLERATE or ELIMINATE??

Your Health

Will you tolerate or eliminate a bad diet?  

Will you tolerate or eliminate being overweight?

Will you tolerate or eliminate being tired all the time?

Your Relationships

Will you tolerate or eliminate people you don’t want to be around?

Will you tolerate or eliminate negative conversations?

Will you tolerate or eliminate abusive remarks or treatment?

Your Career

Will you tolerate or eliminate a job that doesn’t inspire you?

Will you tolerate or eliminate lower pay than you deserve?

Will you tolerate or eliminate long hours or a longer commute?

Your Finances

Will you tolerate or eliminate wasting money?

Will you tolerate or eliminate increasing debt?

Will you tolerate or eliminate zero savings?

The things you don’t want to tolerate are not there to annoy you; they are there to make you better.  It is a sign that something needs to change. You need to be inspired by your own intolerance for poor situations and do something about them.  Find the source of the issue and you can either tolerate or eliminate. If you choose to tolerate you will complain.  If you choose to eliminate, you will be forced to change.

Successful people are less tolerant…of lower level thinking, poor habits and crummy relationships. Be tolerant with others. Just don’t be tolerant with yourself; with your lack of wealth, health, time or effort. It’s your life. Be in charge. You are in charge of what you tolerate.  Pride yourself on your intolerance. Standing up to your issues is standing up for yourself

What do you complain most about?

What can you do about it?

Your life is exactly where it is supposed to be because of what you tolerate.  

Either recognize your situation is your responsibility and stop complaining, or do something about it to remove the irritating stimulus. Either way, you will be clear of it and in more control.  Stop tolerating your old ways holding you back. Pass the torch, not the complaints.

Tolerate or eliminate.  It’s all up to you.

Kevin Wright