I”M A BIG BELIEVER that old school is good school, and that you get out of life exactly what you are willing to tolerate.
To tolerate means to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of something that you do not necessarily like or agree with…without interference.
In other words…what you put up with, you end up with.
Now, you can strongly disagree with the next few lines that scroll across your screen, but I assure you… resistance will prove futile.
If you tolerate mediocrity, then you’ve surrendered any hope of excellence.
If you tolerate excuses, then you’ve allowed behavioral rot to infiltrate your mind and environment.
If you tolerate missed deadlines, then you’ll always under-perform and never live up to your potential.
If you tolerate procrastination, you will find it becoming a self-defeating habit which weakens you psychologically.
It you tolerate low quality work, there’s no reason for anyone to want to do business with you.
If you tolerate bullying, then you have given the bully the green light to continue.
If you tolerate tardiness, you allow a lazy, disrespectful precedent to be set that is detrimental to your reputation.
If you tolerate physical or verbal abuse, then you will suffer at the hands of it.
If you tolerate cheating of any kind, there’s no reason for your partner to stop.
If you tolerate degrading language, you will get used to and come to expect vulgar words in your presence.
If you tolerate people interfering in your marriage, you will start to resent friends and family.
If you tolerate any or all of these things, you will live a compromised life, you will have cheated yourself and as a result…you will have wasted the one, and ONLY one life you have been given.
So what’s the solution, how do you stop the abuse, how do you empower strength and not tolerate weakness, how do you ensure that you live a life of excellence?
The answer is amazingly simple – You must raise your standards by making everything we think, say and do count.
Send a memo to yourself that you won’t tolerate low standards or any form of internal or external abuse.
Seriously consider confronting and reprimanding anyone who violates those new higher, nobler standards.
And if by chance you think that’s too harsh. Well, then you’ll continue to get what you tolerate.
Consider this a fair warning—what you put up with…you end up with!
So raise the bar of your own performance, embrace Everything Counts as your battle cry…adopt it as your key operating philosophy for all performance-improvement initiatives, and it will become not just a smart move, but a sustainable competitive weapon.
Gary Ryan Blair
P.S. If you passionately believe in your goals and committed to raising your performance standards, then be sure to participate in the next 100 Day Challenge.
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