There was a man who went to visit his friend in the deep bayous of Louisiana.  As he approached his friend’s house he noticed his trusty old hound out on the porch moaning and howling lowly.  Puzzled, tried to console the aggravated dog to no avail.  When his friend came to the door, he asked why the dog was lowly howling.  His friend simply replied that the dog had laid on a nail.  Now completely confused, he asked "why doesn’t he just get off it?"  His friend replied with a slow southern drawl, "I guess it doesn’t hurt that bad…"

This little story illustrates perfectly the concept of a toleration.  They are things that we can do something about, but lack the motivation because they just don’t hurt bad enough to overcome the pain that comes with the discipline to do something positive.  Think the papers on your desk, those extra 10 pounds, the prospecting activities that seem to always get put off until tomorrow or next week. 

You are tolerating more than you think. We put up with, accept, take on, and are dragged down by people’s behavior, situations, unmet needs, crossed boundaries, unfinished business, frustrations, problems, and even our own behavior.

So what are you tolerating? Take a couple of minutes to write down stuff you that you are putting up with. Not the stuff you can’t change or have no control over, but things like that 5 lbs that hangs around because it really doesn’t bug you enough to motivate you to go to the gym. Or that pile of papers that has sat on the corner of your desk for the last 3 weeks.

As you think of more items, add them to your list. Do you have to do anything about them? No, not really. Just becoming aware of and articulating them will bring them to the forefront of your mind and you’ll naturally start handling, eliminating, fixing, growing through, and resolving these them.