It turns out there’s a fine line between resilience and tolerance, my friend.

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And I believe we confuse the two.

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Let’s look at it.

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The definition of resilience is:

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“The capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties.” 

“The ability of a substance or object to spring back into shape, elasticity.”

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The definition of tolerance is:

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“To allow the existence of something that one does not like or agree with without interference.”

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Now, before we take a step further, I want to be clear that when I speak of tolerance in this context, I’m NOT referring to showing tolerance to people who have different views and beliefs than we do. Tolerance in this case is mandatory.

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However, when it comes to our careers (and lives), it’s easy to confuse tolerance for resilience. Thinking we’re being resilient when in fact we’re just being tolerant.

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Resilient is active and tolerant is passive.

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Are there areas in your career or life where you’re not actually resilient (bouncing back for a situation) but rather tolerant (accepting without interference)?

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It took me 5 seconds to identify an area in my life. I think you’ll know immediately.

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Here’s what I believe:

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1️⃣ Every career and job has things that you don’t enjoy or agree with. If it’s 10% (max 20%) of the job, then fine. But if it’s more than that, it’s time to interfere.

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2️⃣ Life is too short – and too long – to “push-through” day after day, week after week, quarter after quarter. 

3️⃣ Nothing good comes from pushing through. 

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So, what’s the solution? 

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Interfere with it!

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Address it. Change it. Give feedback to who needs to get feedback. Put up boundaries for those who don’t respect yours. Do things differently. 

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Whatever you think will change the situation, do it. Because life is too short and too long, my friend.

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Jeanette 💛

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ps. if you have a colleague or a friend stuck in tolerance, send this blog to them.