We all have things in our lives that bother us (some of us more than others), and health and weight issues often come into play. If you’ve been struggling to find motivation lately, ask yourself this:

What are you tolerating? What is it that has been bugging you at some level in your life that you’ve been shoving to the side? Is it being a few pounds heavier than you’d like? Do you wish your arms were more toned?

One of the founding fathers of coaching, Thomas Leonard, had this great idea about living life in a “toleration-free zone.” If you could live a toleration-free life, what would it mean?

The answer is different for each of us, and certainly you can’t solve all of your problems overnight, but it helps to make a list and try to check off as many items as you can whenever you can. Scheduling particular days and times for this also makes it easier to get the list shorter and shorter. And if what you’ve been tolerating requires longer-term work, the sooner you start, the sooner you can cross a particular item off your list.

I don’t believe there’s any way to create a perfect toleration-free zone (though I’d love to be proved wrong), but there is so much value in periodically assessing what you’re unhappy with in your life so that you can take action to fix it. Hint: If one toleration seems too daunting, check off some of the smaller ones and find out how good it feels, and then you may find it easier to work on the larger tasks.