Fed up with the status quo?
Sick and tired of dealing with the same miserable people at work every day?
Had enough of your neighbours dog’s incessant barking?
Frustrated after years and years of struggling to get your weight under control?
Just had it!
Not going to take another minute of it!
Done!
Wrong. Of course, you’re going to keep putting up with all of the above as you have so dutifully for so many years.
And here is the reason why: we get what we tolerate. It really is that simple.
And we will continue getting it, despite all our protestations to the contrary, and our declarations of “enough” to reach the point where we conclusively and irrevocably decide it is no longer tolerable.
And then – and only then – will we begin to repeatedly and permanently take the actions necessary to remove it or add it to our lives.
For many of us tolerance has lasted for almost as long as we can remember and, despite repeated half-hearted attempts at changing it, fixing it, removing it from our lives or removing ourselves from its presence, it is somehow still present.
Many times over the previous 362 postings we have discussed the role that pain and pleasure plays in our lives.
We have often reviewed the fact that we do what we do – and only do what we do – in order to gain pleasure or avoid pain.
And as long as the pain is tolerable – despite all our protests to the contrary – we will endure it because the pain of whining about it is not nearly as intense – or enduring – as the pain of doing whatever is necessary to get it out of our lives.
So when we make statements like “I can’t take it anymore,” or “I am done with…” we are simply expressing our frustration of the moment unless, along with those statements, we begin the actions necessary to truly “not take it anymore,” or to really “be done with it.”
We all know of people who boast of having high pain-tolerance levels and proudly boast of how they underwent root canal surgery without freezing or bravely came to work despite a killer migraine.
The ability to do this resides in us all and while there are undoubtedly times that extreme tolerance of pain and discomfort is necessary and admirable, when we continue to tolerate – and constantly complain about – circumstances and situations in our lives, we are simply expressing outwardly our frustration at what we are inwardly willing to continue accepting.
We get what we tolerate is as true a statement as ever there was. The lesson for many of us, when addressing those issues that bring regular stress, anger and frustration into our lives, is to examine the reasons behind our willingness for continuing to tolerate them.
And when we do this, many will be surprised to discover that the lesson learned is that the pain and discomfort caused by it – as annoying, irritating, frustrating and long-term as it seems – is less than the (usually) short-term pain we need endure to permanently rid our lives of it.
Which means that our pain tolerance level is determined more by the cause of the pain than the pain itself.
And that brings truth to the fact we get what we tolerate.
Till we read again.
