What do you tolerate within yourself?

May 18, 2025
4:23 PM

When was the last time you challenged the standards of how you lived your life? Where is the line in the ground that reality needs to cross before you feel something has to change? What will it take to make you finally tell yourself you've had enough? Most importantly, must it reach that point before you want better for yourself?

We all have a set of standards that determine what we tolerate in our lives. It's our boundaries for how disciplined we are, how we allow others to treat us, how much money we make, how knowledgeable we are about the world, how competent we are at a task, how we communicate with others, how we manage our emotions, or how rigorously we protect our health. These standards make up our self-image and monitor our internal thermometer that alerts us when something needs to change.

Where are your standards? What are you tolerating in your life today? If you took a moment to take a new inventory of your life, would your standards reflect who you want to be? The truth is, we don't live up to the ambitions of the people we hope to become, but grow into the product of the behaviours we get comfortable tolerating in ourselves.

One of the first responsibilities you must embrace as the leader of your own life is to set a standard that meets the height of your potential; to be the kind of person who doesn't get pushed and pulled by the environments they find themselves in, but takes ownership of their influence and brings their own environment to the places they go.

Ask yourself every once in a while: What environment would you like to carry with you? What do you need to stop allowing within your awareness and presence? What changes do you need to make in your daily life?

If you neglect to do so, years of your youth may slip by along with the opportunities it brings. You will not only miss out on experiencing the fulfillment that comes with progress, but instead, experience a deep and quiet dissatisfaction that comes from knowing that you're capable of more but settling for less. Eventually, it will be too late as your hope for the future will turn into a bitter regret for the past, and your complacency will have become your identity.

So, if you can do better, why not do better? Learn to be grateful for all that you have while you strive to become all you can be. Challenge yourself to be more than just a product of the environment you've created. Dare to bring the best parts of you everywhere you go, and fail, and make it better. Push yourself to raise your standards and not settle for anything less than what you're truly capable of.

8:13 PM
Chris X