In order to be successful it's critical that we become clear about what we really want and why we want it. But the flip side to that is to also be clear about what we DON'T want.

We all have things in our life that, at best, don't serve us. Many of these things actually detract from the quality and satisfaction of our lives. What we’ve found to be helpful is to create a toleration list.

By simply listing the things we don't want, we begin the process of their removal. I'm not advocating that we dwell on these things—only identify them and begin to eliminate them. I'm a firm believer in keeping our focus on what we want because we tend to find what we're looking for. But we must also discern that which we don't want as part of our experience.

Much time and energy is frittered away by small but annoying things: a dent in our car, a window in the house that doesn't shut easily, a towel rack that's bent, a squeaky door, a button missing or a phone with an unpleasant ring. They may not sound like much, but added together they reduce our creativity, sap our production ability and detract from our enjoyment of everyday living.

Identifying and writing these things down is the genesis of their eradication.

I just looked at a toleration list my wife and I had made a few months ago and was surprised to see how many items had been handled—seemingly without effort. One by one we knocked them off because we'd identified them as worthy of elimination. As a result we have a greater sense of accomplishment and things run more smoothly.

Of course there are now other things we've added to our list. We've also found that our tolerance level has been elevated. We no longer put up with things we used to accept.

I highly recommend you start a list of tolerations. Write down all the things that don't work, don't look good—that you don't like using, looking at or having around. Go through your wardrobe and give away what doesn’t work for you anymore—if it ever did. Walk through your house and list things that are broken, shabby or create clutter.

As you get rid of things, you're using the principle of vacuum—making room for what you want by getting rid of what you don't. If your life is filled with things that no longer serve you, there's no room for the things that can.

And there's no need to make these items on our list bad or wrong, either. Trash is simply stuff that was once useful but no longer is. Handling the things on your toleration list is just another way of taking out the trash.

Start your toleration list today, begin to eliminate each item and watch the quality of your life, your creativity and your productivity soar.

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