We are all tolerating people and situations that drain our energy, drag us down and make our lives less than ideal. These can be major situations like a job you dislike, a home that doesn’t meet your needs or a difficult relationship, but it is also minor irritations like the dripping faucet, a drawer that needs de-cluttered, a call that needs to be returned or clothes that don’t fit.

What are you putting up with that is diminishing the quality of life that you desire and deserve? Think about your home, office, job, relationships, family, money, body, car, equipment, appliances, etc.

What are you tolerating from yourself? Bad habits, limiting beliefs, negative thinking, negative behaviors?

What are you tolerating from others? Criticism, mooching, put downs, shame, blame, guilt trips?

Wouldn’t it feel great to be rid of these tolerations once and for all?

Here are “Eight Benefits of Being Toleration Free” from the Toleration Free Program created by Coachville.

1. You Feel Freer.
Until you release them, tolerations act like tethers to a hot air balloon--they hold you down. Identifying your tolerations and handling them is like cutting the tethers to your life.

2. You Have More Energy.
Until you eliminate them, tolerations zap your energy even if you don’t realize it.

3. You Become More Creative.
When you are tolerating, you are locked into the ways you USED to do things. When you handle the tolerations, you’ll find yourself experimenting more.

4. You Are Happier.
Tolerations are reminders of what you DON’T want in your life. When you handle these, you’re essentially creating a future that
YOU WANT.

5. You Attract Higher Quality People.
Working through your tolerations is like a rite of passage. Once you move through it, you’ll meet some really great people on the other side.

6. You Evolve Faster.
Tolerations keep you from rapidly developing and evolving because they distract and divert you, so when you eliminate tolerations, there is less ‘friction’ in life and you naturally accelerate your development.

7. You Attract Better Opportunities.
This is because you can SEE them. If you’re still tolerating, life appears fuzzy because you’re looking through the gauze of what your putting up with.

8. You Strengthen Your Personal Foundation.
In the process of identifying and eliminating your tolerations, you also touch on other personal foundation areas such as needs, values, integrity and reserve. When you handle the tolerations, you have more time to strengthen your strengths and better use your resources.

© 2004, CoachVille, LLC.  All Rights Reserved.


Action Challenge

Make this summer the time you decide to be Toleration Free.

Sometimes just being aware of what you are tolerating is enough to bring them to the forefront of your mind and you naturally start handling, eliminating, fixing and resolving these tolerations.

So, the first step is...
1. Make a list of things that you are tolerating that you Don’t Want in your life and are putting up with and see what happens.

If you want to actively address your tolerations add the following steps...

2. From your list, pick three things to work on by filling in these statements.

I am no longer willing to tolerate....from myself.

I am no longer willing to tolerate....from others.

I am no longer willing to tolerate....in my environment.

3. Set the intention to find a way to change these three things and brainstorm some ideas about how you can eliminate these tolerations.

4. Take some actions steps immediately to address the three tolerations you have chosen to eliminate.

5. Once those tolerations are handled, choose three more to work on.

6. Make this process more fun and interesting by working on your tolerations with a friend, family member or coach. Start with some easy-to-handle tolerations first and create some
momentum to work on the bigger challenges.