Clutter was the subject of Life In First Person a couple weeks ago. I shared this observation: “Others of us are oblivious to the amount of clutter we have.” Oblivious? Yes, we can all get used to that mess of a desk or the disorganized closet, yet deep down inside we know it exists. There is also a form of clutter that we have a harder time seeing — the kind of clutter we call tolerations. A toleration is defined as something less than desirable that is allowed to exist, even though it tends to drain a person’s energy.
What are you tolerating? What are you putting up with? When this question was first posed to me, I had a difficult time coming up with any tolerations. Hey, I like to deal with things directly, head-on and not have things or relationships lingering or undone. So, yeah, I am not tolerating anything. Oh yes I was…I just didn’t know how to recognize tolerations.
How do you discover tolerations? Ask yourself — what in your life is not working as you would like? Is it your business, a relationship, your home environment, your personal time? What is it that you are putting up with? Perhaps you have some Pseudo, No-Fit or even Big Hitter clients on your list?