By Joe Stumpf
Some people are standing knee-deep in “should.”

For example, at one time I could make a list of over 100 things I was tolerating. The light in my closet was burned out and I had to move my ties into the light to see the colors. I was tolerating the burnt-out light bulb.

I had a gate latch that was broken, and when I closed the gate I would have to lean a brick up against the gate to make sure it closed. Every time I closed my gate, I would hear myself say, “I should fix that.”

My garage door would not close every time I hit the switch and I would say, “I should fix that…” The door in my downstairs bathroom was broken and when I had guests, they would get locked in the bathroom. And I would say, “I should fix that.”

I could give you over 100 examples, because that was one of the first exercises that Thomas gave me so I’d stop confusing tolerations with goals. If your life is filled with tolerations, you start to act like they are goals.

Let’s say you have a slow Internet connection and you say to yourself, “I should get a faster connection.” That is not a goal – that’s something you’re tolerating. Get a faster connection and the goal is to double your income in half the time.

When your life is filled with tolerations, you set small goals. When you live in a toleration-free zone, you set bigger, better goals.

Make a list of 100 things in your life that you’re tolerating and over the next 24 months see how many you can handle.

I promise you will set bigger, better goals.