ABC news has this ongoing story about gas prices. They found an economist who posited that people aren’t going to change their guzzling behavior until gas reaches $100/gallon. SUV’s are more popular than ever and hybrid sales have slowed. They talked about the fact that people accept the rising prices because they expect them. It will take a BIG price tag to impact behavior.
Pause. Consider. Is there anything you accept because you expect it?
Take a look at your beliefs and ask if they are based on fact. For example, you might expect that you have to work 24/7 to become wildly successful. Not true. I’ve been interviewing successful attorneys for a marketing book I’m co-authoring with another lawyers’ coach. We’re talking to attorneys we were referred to because they have a fantastic track record of bringing new business to their firms. Without exception, these attorneys believe you have to work hard, but not necessarily long. They love their lives; they have full lives- not just work lives, they are interesting people. You can argue that they love their lives because they are in fat city- but I think it works the other way around. Stop tolerating things simply because you expect them. Expect a great life and a practice that supports it.
Start small. Take out a sheet of paper and title it “Tolerations”. Then start making a list of the things you are tolerating. Things that bug you on some level. This can range from your disorganized brief case to the garage that needs cleaning out, to the way someone talks to you and so on. What are you tolerating at work, at home, in your relationships? Write it down. Get it out of your head and onto your list.
Next, go through the list and cut anything that you can’t impact or avoid. The number of rainy weekends we’ve had, for example, and how many soccer games have to be crammed into the end of the season. If you can’t do anything about it- stop spending any time on it at all. (I admit to wasting a half an hour being ticked off that we have to make up all those games…then I got over it. Decided to get over it.)
Look for anything you can outsource. Send a big copy job to a copier, call someone to repair your screens, hire a cleaning crew.
Finally- you need to work the tolerations list. If there’s anything you can knock off in a couple of minutes- like renewing your bar membership or calling Aunt Sallie- then schedule time on your calendar and do it. As you cross things off, you’ll feel lighter. You’ll clear some of the clutter in your brain.
Add things to the list as your standards rise- and make sure you don’t have a recycling toleration- like closet cleaning was for me. I would clean it, toss a lot of stuff, then 6 months later it was back on my list. Once you wipe out a toleration, be aware if it tries to rise up again! As always, you’re at choice.
Tolerations will come up again here, it’s a tried and true coaching tool that I learned at Coach U. (seriously, there is a Coach U) It’s such a simple idea, but it has a lot of power. Just look at the list and think howyou’d feel if you dealt with every toleration.
That’s it- just plan some time, make your list- and start knocking things off!
