In an ideal world, life would amount to the sum of our intentions.
Good things would happen to good people; we’d be measured by our heart and depth and character.
While this is true to some degree — life is undoubtedly kinder toward those who are kind to it — the truth is that your intentions don’t amount to your outcomes. Just wanting something badly enough does not qualify you to have it, simply believing that you’re capable of more does not mean you will actually achieve more.
In the end, your life amounts to the sum of what you tolerate.
It is defined by what you allow.
You are treated as well as you allow other people to treat you. When you set boundaries or cut off contact with those who do not meet those expectations, you are setting the standard for relationships in your life.
You achieve as much as you allow yourself to pursue. You create as often as you are willing to show up, and to begin.
You grow as much as you allow yourself to feel uncomfortable. We often think that it is discomfort that holds us back from becoming who we want to be, when in fact, that feeling, once truly acknowledged, will point us in the direction that we need to create change.
If you are willing to tolerate mistreatment, you will be mistreated.
If you are willing to tolerate unhappiness, you will remain unhappy.
If you are willing to tolerate dissatisfaction, you will remain dissatisfied.
Your life only truly becomes your own on the day that you decide you will not — for another second of your existence — tolerate less than you know you are capable of having, doing less than you are capable of doing, and being less than you are capable of being.
The truth is that nobody else is going to give this to you.
Nobody is going to wake you up to this fact.
Nobody is going to sit you down and give you a power point presentation about your worth and potential, and nobody is going to strategize a way to make it a reality.
The only way it is going to happen is if you decide you are no longer going to be okay with excuses, empty words or broken dreams. It is only going to happen if you decide that you will no longer tolerate anything less than the outcomes you want, and the life you dream of.
Your life becomes the sum of what you tolerate, so stop tolerating less than you desire.