Last week I was traveling from Europe to Canada and I had the worse flight experience I have ever had. Approximately 15 times a minute my seat would get hit or kicked by the passenger behind me. Causing my seat and body jolt forward and then pulpit backwards. It was a 7 hour flight, so that is A LOT of jolts!

I did all the usually actions, spoke nicely to him, ask the flight assistant if I could move to another seat (there weren’t any), the flight assistants all spoke to the gentleman. All to no avail.  In the end all I could do was tolerate the situation. What was interesting about the situation was I wasn’t able to do the things I usually love to do when flying. I wasn’t able to enjoy my novel,  the work I had taken with me, have a nap or even enjoy a film. The only activity that was possible was to watch mindless TV comedies, which helped to block out reality. This experience got me thinking, if in our daily life we are tolerating annoyances then they are seriously stopping us from achieving our potential. Rather than pursuing activities that engage our brain, and nurture us, having to tolerate annoyances means we do activities that help us tolerate life rather than grow and develop.

In order to untap your brilliance and allow your full potential to shine, it’s important that you first realize what things in your life you are tolerating and then start to get rid of them.

Tolerations range from the mundane for example, a broken light bulb, to a relationship that is no longer working

Adults with ADHD tend to have more tolerations in their lives than others. This could be because they get distracted, and so keep meaning to do a task but then jump to something else, because they never feel they have enough time to address the toleration, or they don’t feel they deserve better…a result of low self esteem. Tolerations are often mundane to fix and a little boring, so it’s more interesting to do other things.

So its time to blitz those tolerations! You will have so much more mental and physical energy when you and you will also feel so much more cheerful, relaxed and healthy too.

1)Walk round your home, your office and car and take an inventory of everything you are tolerating

For example, a broken drawer that is difficult to open and close. All your socks seem to have holes in so you have to sort through numerous ones before you can find a pair to wear. Your guest room is full of clutter and it sucks you energy every time you walk it.

2) Think of all the people in your life, is there anything you are tolerating there? Perhaps someone is also criticizing you, or talks about other people behind their back

3) Are there any personal habits that you have that you are tolerating?  Perhaps smoking even though you don’t want to. Never recycling, even though you would like to.

4) Are there any health issues that you have been meaning to get looked at? Have a mole removed, teeth cleaned, ingrowing toe nail looked at.

When you have your list don’t be daunted by its size. The more the better. Set yourself the challenge of addressing one thing on the list a day. Perhaps a phone call to book an appointment with your dentist one day, a conversation with your friend who is very negative the next.  With each toleration being taken care of you will notice how much your quality of life improves and be in a much better space to achieve what is important to you!