I don't tolerate it!!!

So I saw Wayne Bennet speak last night.

For those that don't know of him, Wayne is the coach of the Brisbane Broncos rugby league team. He has been with the a grade team since it's exception in 1988.

Which is unheard of in this day and age.

The speech was great.

A few less than exceptional jokes but still great to hear this man (who has a lot of at-home dramas to deal with and still runs one of the most successful sporting teams in the world).

It was on my list of things to do before I die.

I was fortunate enough to meet him and get a photo with him after the dinner.

But the reason I bring this up in today's blog is because of what he said to a question about some of the egos he has to deal with in the Broncos.

"How do you deal with all the over paid 18 year olds"?

"All the big heads"?

"All the drinking, drug and abuse issues outside of the game"?

And his answer was this...

"It is easy to deal with, because I don't tolerate it"

"If I tolerated it in the club, then it would be an issue, but I just don't tolerate it"

I thought that was a great answer to the question and he was applauded by the whole group for such an answer.

And as I left that night, driving home, it got me thinking about all the things in our lives that we just put up with...

Instead of saying "I wont put up with this", we just mould ourselves around the problem.

We lessen ourselves to tolerate the problem (whatever that is, it might be internal (ourselves) or it might be external (family, friends, work, environment...who knows?)

And the way Wayne said "I just don't tolerate it" was said with such confidence, and straight eyed, that you really believed him.

When you tell your kids off, do they really believe you????

When you tell yourself "No more biscuits this week" do you really believe yourself???

When you tell your husband "mow the lawn this week, or else" does he really believe you???

or the wife "be ready at 6.30pm, instead of midnight" does she really believe you??? (tread carefully on that one fellas!!!)

And when none of these things happen, do you tolerate it???

The answer is yes, most times we just tolerate it and mould ourselves around the problem.

But what if we said, "I just don't tolerate it".

Let's look at the biscuit example.

If you said to yourself "no biscuits for this week".

(or beer, wine, choc, pies, donuts, name your weakness)

If you said "I will not have this bad food all week and I do not tolerate anything less"!!!

Then it WILL happen.

If it doesn't happen there are DIRE consequences!!!

(in the Broncos, you would be FIRED on the spot, they know the rules and if you break those rules...BYE BYE)

So what are you tolerating in your life?

Make the choice and say "I do not tolerate this in my life"

and say it with confidence and straight eyed.

You have to mean it or don't bother.

Your choice.

Matt