Some people hate quotes. They think they're cliche or weird or maybe they've just never come up with a good one so they hate them. I don't know, and it's fine, one doesn't have to love quotes, but I certainly do. Alissa often calls me the quote master, I seem to have a quote from something I've read or listened to for every situation. ("What an unoriginal loser," is probably what "they" say, whoever the hell "they" are) So today while I was eating breakfast and fist pumping in the air because it tasted so good and my music was so loud and I was so damn jacked the frick up, I thought of a quote I particularly love from Tony Robbins:
"We all get what we tolerate."
He talks about this concept using a different phrase as well saying, "Raise your standards, change your life." He also says, "Turn your shoulds into musts." They are all great quotes, and to me they all are generally talking about the same concept. My simple Central Minnesotan mind seems to like "We all get what we tolerate," the best. Like any great elementary teacher would do, let me explain this quote to you, the people of the internet, by using a real life example of this concept improving my life.
My whole life I've always been in pretty good shape, except a little period in college after I tore my ACL and I did a lot of sitting around, eating buffets, crushing keystone lights, and more sitting. But besides that I've always stayed in decent shape. A few years ago, I was in that decent shape phase, didn't look too fat but certainly had some good blubber hangin around, couldn't jog a mile without being super tired, even running from first to third in a softball game had me winded, certainly a far cry from the super good shape I was in in high school when I could be on the field for every play of a football game and not get tired. So finally I just decided, I need to get back in kick ass shape. I simply couldn't tolerate it anymore (see what I did there) and knew I could do better.
So I dedicated myself to getting back in fantastic shape, used a bunch of other quotes to help me get there, such as asking myself each day when I didn't feel like working out "Can you do the thing you don't want to do in order to get the result you want?" And eventually I was like, hot damn, I'm like in the same shape I was in when I was in high school. But here's where the tolerate and standards quotes really come in; I've set a new standard for myself in terms of physical health. Now whenever I have a week or two where I've really crushed a ton of food and maybe an extra hazy IPA or two and I'm grabbing my stomach (Alissa always asks me why I'm grabbing my stomach) to feel what kind of extra flab I have, if I don't like it at all I immediately snap back into crushing workouts the next week, eating healthier, and getting myself in the physical health that I desire.
Do you see what I'm talking about here? I simply can't tolerate getting out of shape anymore. And since we all get what we tolerate, as soon as I'm edging towards being out of shape I take action on it and get back to the results I want.
This goes for everything in our lives, and when I really examined that it wasn't always something I wanted to hear. We're living in our current residence, driving what we drive, looking like how we look, traveling as often as we travel, because we can tolerate it. When you get to a point of no longer being able to tolerate something, you take action and change it. It's that simple. Whether it's your physical conditioning or the money you're making.
Oh shit did he just say money!? The weirdly taboo subject of money that everyone is afraid to talk about yet controls our whole life. We all talk openly about our jobs, immediately ask people what they "do" for a living, but if someone ever actually says anything about a dollar amount being made, everyone freaks the hell out. We can talk about how much we spent on something, but for some reason if we mention how much we made on something it's like we just shouted in a library and everyone's looking at us like what the hell did he just say? Okay, side tangent on that is over, we'll have to cover that another time, back to the goods.
You truly make what you tolerate, what your standard is. And it's different for everyone, and what you tolerate doesn't need to be what your neighbor or sibling tolerates, but whatever you tolerate you will get. One person is just fine making $3,000/month, while another simply can't fathom tolerating that, so they take the proper action to get to$20,000/month because that's their must. And this isn't just for health or finances, it's everything in life. If you can no longer tolerate another winter in the cold midwest, you do something about it and move. If you can no longer tolerate the people you're spending time with, you find a way to get around different people. Because you're a human, and you can do something about things that no longer serve you.
The key is figuring out what you tolerate. Where are you setting your standards? What shoulds are you turning into musts? Because when you figure that out and get clear on these things, you will take the necessary action to make them happen. If you want more than you currently have, you simply need to raise your standards up to that level, make those desires your new musts, and do not tolerate another day living below the new standard you've set for yourself. Only you can decide what that looks like for you. So set that standard, and go get it.
Be Awesome.
-Tom Spaniol
"Progress equals happiness."
-Tony Robbins
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