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The Sound

It's nearly midnight and my wife and I are just about to doze off, looking forward to a restful night of sleep.

Until we heard the sound.

It was a variation of what is sometimes called Chinese water torture. The idea is a steady sound—such as the dripping of water—even if it isn’t loud, over time can drive you crazy.

In the quiet of the Kaufman household, this normally subtle sound was keeping us both awake. What was it? Every 30 seconds or so we could hear the sound of water running—almost like a mini-flush from the toilet in our master bathroom.

I could hear my wife sigh. “That thing is driving me crazy!”

The culprit: a flush valve seal that cost $1.47 USD and about 30 minutes of my time.

Because we do it all the time. So do you. Life is filled with things that annoy us but, for a multitude of reasons, we put up with them. Often in life it’s not the sharks that cause the most problems—it’s the guppies!

In the coaching field we call such items tolerations. Similar to our plumbing problem, tolerations are those subtle leaks that drain our energy day-after-day.

Typically they aren’t big things. It could be a light bulb that has been out for a while. Or a squeaky door. Or a pile of mail and paper that keeps growing in your kitchen. Or a conflict with a co-worker that hasn’t been resolved.

Though the cost of an individual toleration may not be that large, the accumulated toll ends up impacting our stress level and focus.

Identify and Reduce

• Get a pencil and some paper. Don’t start with fixing! Start with identifying! What are those things that you’ve been putting up with? Google “clean sweep program” and you’ll find some insights from a CoachU, Inc. program that can help you identify areas you may not even realize that you’re tolerating.
• Think Reduce. In the perfect world you could get rid of all of your tolerances. In the real world, aim for reduce. Even a little progress will bring you satisfying results. I recommend looking for the easiest item on your list and starting with it.
• Chip away. Keep your list of tolerations handy. When you get a window of available time, take one action to chip away at it to make progress.

Get More Done With Less Stress

Andy Kaufman

Many organizations will be gathering their teams in the coming months to close out the current year and start the new one with momentum. Whether you go offsite or have your meeting in-house, the Institute has keynotes that can help you make your event a great success!

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