I am all about taking my life and making a difference, seeing change in lives all around me. It’s what I do. It’s what I’ve done for the past 30 years of my life. I heard a statement recently and have been meditating on it a lot. It goes something like this: “You can’t change what you tolerate.” It really struck a nerve. I’ve also seen it written this way, “The very thing you put up with you end up with.” How can you and I ever expect to make things better if we choose to ignore the realities of what’s taking place all around us?
We see this word “toleration” in so many aspects of life … our jobs, relationships, and even in our own health. For example, parents who tolerate their children talking back to them will eventually have children who have problems with authority in their lives. If you or I settle and become comfortable with a low-paying job, we will never stretch ourselves and launch out to find a higher-paying one. How about our use of words and language that not too long ago were considered offensive and repulsive to so many of us?
It’s not that we mean to tolerate something, but it “creeps” in over time. A good example in my own life is weight gain. One year I gained 5 lbs. and it was hardly noticeable. But unfortunately, over the next 5 years I saw that 5 lb. a year weight gain turned into 25 pounds. I didn’t mean for it to happen, but it did because I tolerated it 1 lb. at a time.
If we continually sweep something under the rug and pretend it’s not there, then our behavior and life outcome will eventually be affected in a negative manner. This is not only true in life; it’s true in business and organizations as well. Organizations that tolerate mediocrity, and are reactive instead of proactive, lack productivity. In order to be productive, it takes paying attention to details, attention to relationships and attention to finances. The list could go on and on.
If we don’t like what’s going on around us, then we have a responsibility to “do something” to create a positive life change. In order to do so, it’s critical that we identify what we tolerate and set clear boundaries on what’s acceptable, and what’s not. That boundary will indicate whether someone or something has permission to enter or not. The same is true with the issues of life. When we begin to tolerate something, we are allowing it to enter our life, and we tell the world we don’t care about the outcome it will eventually create in our lives.
So today I encourage you to … “Examine What You Tolerate.”