What are you tolerating in your life?
This comes hot on the heels of last week’s musings on making excuses through fear or procrastination.
There is much going on that you are having to tolerate over which you have no control – all the Covid 19 restrictions spring immediately and depressingly to mind.
But I am sure if you stop and think for a minute that you will find there are all sorts of things that you are tolerating.
Putting up with.
Things you have stopped noticing perhaps because they have been like that for so long.
So think with me, and let’s get down to some specifics:
What are you tolerating in your life?
Here is a wee list of common things that we tolerate. See how many of them resonate with you.
- Unfinished tasks.
- Over-stuffed email in-box.
- Unresolved relationship conflict.
- Broken or unfinished DIY projects around the house.
- Piles of clutter.
- Unclear expectations – causing uncertainty and stress
- Negativity and hollow complaints. – people (or ourselves) complaining whilst neither taking responsibility nor action.
- Guilt – ‘should’s and ‘ought’s. (more on that thorny subject here.)
- A negative mindset – negative loops of belief that keep us trapped in a dark place in our heads and stop us being free to be who we are.
Things that we tolerate drain our energy.
They take up mental head space or cost us extra physical energy because what we are doing takes longer, or they leer at us in their unfinishedness in an exhausting kind of way. We have looked before here at the impact of clutter in our lives, and the types of things that drain our energy.
There is a whole series on clutter here, and I encourage you to work through these steps if NOW is the time to
take courage,
stop making excuses and
tackle the clutter once and for all.
Going back to that question of what are you tolerating in your life.
The tricky issue with things we are tolerating is that we might not always be aware of them, or their impact until the issue is resolved.
Until very recently, our bathroom tap dripped. It had been thus for months, and every time I used the bathroom, there was that inability to fully turn the tap off, and sometimes when the house was quiet you could hear the persistent drip…drip…drip.
This is hardly earth shattering in it’s significance. But MB has now fixed the leak and we have shiny new taps which are smooth in their operation and turn off beautifully and successfully.
Every time.
A small thing perhaps.
But a toleration that once resolved, prompted a wee mini celebration and release of energy.
An over stuffed in-box is another one. You log in, and there is that little menacing number in the corner reminding you that you have 2873 emails. Just sitting there. Looking at you. Reminding you by their presence that they are Not Dealt With.
Tolerations can be categorised into groups:
- Home
- Work
- People
- Habits
When we do this, it can be easier to be objective about each category and keep our emotions at bay.
What we then need is a burst of courage. Courage to identify what we are tolerating, and then create a plan to tackle whatever it is. Further courage is then required to take action. We are more likely to succeed in our plans if we make our goals SMART – specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time bound.
So this week, especially in the face of so many Covid related restrictions that we are having to tolerate, take some time to look at what you are tolerating in your life that you CAN change.
Then embrace the required courage, take action, and enjoy the freedom of achievement and renewed energy.
You can do this.