Many years ago when my kids were little, a friend was watching me interact with them and she confided a secret fear. She admitted feeling very nervous about having kids of her own because she was afraid that she would have a child who acted in a way that she just couldn’t stand – and then what would she do?
I laughed, and passed on some wisdom from an older, wiser friend who had pointed out that when we have kids, the things that we absolutely can’t stand generally don’t get started in the first place…if they even come up, the response from the parent is SO swift and SO sure that it just doesn’t happen again.
The problem behaviors are the ones that we don’t like, but we allow because it’s more trouble than it’s worth to stop them. THOSE are the sticky problems that gum up our lives.
It eats up SO MUCH life energy to deal repeatedly with the smaller, very annoying behaviors.
I was thinking about that scenario this morning, as I was hiking – and re-asking myself: What am I tolerating? I have a few habits that I don’t like, which I have not yet changed…I am tolerating them. How do I know I am tolerating them? Because they’re still there. I can say I am working on them, I can say, oh, it’s not REALLY that big of a deal…I can make excuses to make myself feel better. But at the end of the day, I know I am tolerating them. I spent a good part of my hike pondering the true cost to me of that tolerance.
I can tell you, I came home from my hike with a deeply renewed commitment to change the things I am tolerating to things I am excited about and love having in my life. I’ve started my list, and these things are on notice! It feels great.
What do you want to change? What are you tolerating around it?
This is also the first element in the strategy sessions I do with people.
I do five complimentary strategy sessions each month. If you’d like to apply for one, just go to https://scoutwilkins.com/strategy_Session.html, fill in the form and submit it.
May we all make this a stellar day full of what we MOST want in our lives!!