In life we get what we expect, and we get what we tolerate. And we all have areas in our lives where we can raise our standards.
But to raise our standards, we must ask ourselves an important question – what am I tolerating?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary, to tolerate something is to allow something to be or to be done without prohibition, hindrance, or contradiction. In other words, we allow the existence of something in our lives that isn’t healthy and doesn’t contribute to us becoming the best version of ourselves.
So, what are you tolerating personally and professionally?
At home, is there something about your relationship with your friends, family, partner, kids or others that you know needs to change but you’ve let it exist?
How about with yourself? Have you let your health deteriorate? Are you eating poorly? Are you overly critical of yourself and others? Is your car a mess? Your bed unmade? Or maybe your fly-fishing gear is unorganized?
What are you tolerating at work? Maybe it’s how you are treated or the working conditions. Maybe it’s something about your environment or the poor performance of a peer. Is the company culture out of alignment with your core values? Maybe you know your team or organization can do better.
Examining your tolerations is an exercise not meant to be critical of who you are, but rather to look critically at your life and ask, “What is getting in the way of raising my standards?”
If you truly want to move toward the vision, values and identity that define your best self, you have to assess the areas of your life that you are tolerating.
What are You Tolerating as a Leader?
Below are three steps to help you identify and eliminate your tolerations. At the end of this post, you’ll find a free Tolerations Toolkit that will guide you through these steps in more detail.
STEP 1: Take inventory. Think about the different personal and professional aspects of your life and make a list of every toleration that is getting in the way of being your best self.
STEP 2: Identify one toleration that you want to eliminate. Focus on that one toleration for the next 21 days.
STEP 3: Once you are confident you have cleared the toleration from your life, move on to the next most impactful toleration.
We get what we expect, and we get what we tolerate. Let’s tolerate less, expect more and together make a bigger and more positive impact in our lives and in the lives of others.
Download Your Tolerations Toolkit Here
So, what are you tolerating? The Tolerations Toolkit is free and will walk you through three steps to tolerate less, expect more and raise your standards.