Happy Christmas!  

While you’re waiting for Santa to arrive, have a look below at 100 things that annoy him. Mark the ones you share with him and email me your top 3!

1. Fleas on my reindeer
2. Having someone in my life who always tries to tell me what to do
3. A desk full of stacks of papers
4. Clients who cancel appointments at the last moment
5. Being overweight
6. A constant need for home maintenance and repairs
7. Not enough storage space for all my office files
8. A phone battery that dies too quickly
9. Not enough time scheduled for dreaming and thinking ‘big picture’ for my business
10. A web page that needs updating
11. Not enough time on the golf course
12. Being crabby a lot
13. Investments that should be re-evaluated but haven’t been
14. Not working out at least three times a week
15. Not getting enough deep belly laughing every day
16. Sex life? What sex life?
17. Working at a job I don’t enjoy
18. Not having a coach because I can’t afford one
19. Having to pay to park outside my own home
20. Too much e-mail
21. My boss!
22. A guest bedroom that needs cleaning up (it looks like a storage room)
23. A co-worker who has more tolerations than I do and spends all day talking about them
24. Not enough time spent in the garden
25. Doing without an office assistant even though I need one
26. Not saving money every month
27. Facebook
28. A client who changes appointments frequently
29. Telemarketing calls at inconvenient times
30. A web site that doesn’t reflect me
31. Being easily overwhelmed and trying to act like I’m not
32. A garage that is so full you can’t get into it
33. Loving to travel and not knowing when I’ll next be able to take a trip somewhere
34. Not having a spare key for the car
35. Tripping over my dog’s toys throughout the house
36. Having to get up each morning before the sun rises
37. Negative attitudes of people with whom I work
38. Needy relatives
39. Being the office dumping ground because I’m such a good listener
40. Low levels of reserves
41. Knowing all my debt will not be paid off for another 10 years
42. Inadequate retirement fund
43. A former spouse who does not contribute time or money to raising our children
44. Mildew in the grout of the tiles in my shower
45. Spiders webs in the corners
46. Stuff on top of my fridge that has not been put away since I had that Christmas party 10 years ago
47. A dining room table currently covered with stuff not related to dining
48. An inherited chest of drawers that has a broken piece of veneer
49. A cat that lies on my wrists when I’m working on the computer
50. Having a nice attic but not being able to get into it because the steps are falling apart
51. Cleaning supplies that won’t fit under the sink
52. Spending eight hours a day in a room with no window
53. Having a sugar and caffeine addiction
54. Wearing only what’s comfortable even if I don’t like the way I look
55. Having become very good at acting patient and hating every minute of it
56. House that needs to be repainted
57. Having so many talents and interests that I’m constantly being pulled in lots of directions
58. Hair that doesn’t look good
59. Knowing that I’m the only reliable sibling and that when the time comes that my parents need to be cared for, it’s all going to fall on me
60. Having boxes of things that need to be donated but that I haven’t taken to the charity shop
61. Having more books than bookshelves
62. Not knowing how to ask for space from people without getting snippy because I’ve waited too long to ask
63. Not knowing how to tell someone in my life to stop hurting my feelings without hurting his or her feelings
64. Being designated the keeper of the peace in the family
65. Being really sentimental
66. Not having a friend in the same town that I can just call up on the spur of the moment to go out with to do something
67. Living with a constant inner sense of deep frustration
68. The lack of sunlight in winter
69. Living in a dangerous area
70. Beating myself up because I can’t seem to apply all the things I know to myself
71. Having brains and talent but not knowing of any means of making a living from them
72. Not having a life plan that seems doable
73. The pile of stuff on top of the dresser that I can’t seem to throw away
74. A brown splotch on the wall from where I killed an insect
75. A partner who chews food noisily
76. A partner who hates where we live
77. No reserve of income
78. Not taking a holiday every year
79. Not visiting friends or family as often as I’d like to
80. Having old, worn-out shoes
81. Living on a noisy main road
82. Underselling myself
83. Shelves waiting to go up
84. Carpet that needs cleaning
85. Weak networks
86. No fun opportunities
87. My spouse’s tone of voice with me
88. My frying pan–everything sticks
89. Too much television
90. A lack of communication with my spouse
91. A lack of an up-to-date business plan
92. A lack of clients
93. A messy studio/home/bedroom/other room
94. Cooking dinner every night when I don’t want to
95. Not having a car I enjoy driving
96. Holding on to some stocks that have lost me a lot of money
97. Not getting enough sleep to feel rested
98. People who criticize me
99. Not making enough money to afford what I want
100. Haven’t been out on a great date for months

We humans have learned to tolerate a lot. We put up with, accept, take on and are dragged down by things in our physical environment like disorganisation, messes, broken stuff and other things like people’s behaviour, situations, unmet needs, crossed boundaries, incompletion, frustrations, problems and even our own behaviour.

You are tolerating more than you think. So what are you tolerating? Please take a couple of minutes to write down the things you sense that you are tolerating, if they aren’t on this list.

Do you have to do anything about them? No, not really. Just becoming aware of and articulating them will bring them to the forefront of your mind and you’ll naturally start handling, eliminating, fixing, growing through and resolving these tolerations. Enjoy this exercise!

If you’d like coaching around reducing your tolerations, I’d be delighted to work with you.
Either give me a call on +44 (0) 20 8473 0261
or drop me a line, daphne@cliftonconsulting.com