Do The Right Thing vs Tolerance!!

I am going to start out with the saying that started it all. “Don’t let your willingness to do the right thing outrun your tolerance.” I have no idea where I got it from and If somebody knows who coined the phrase I would love to give them credit. It was one of those sayings that meant absolutely nothing to me and I probably looked at the person who said it like they were crazy…………until life showed up. Like a lot of sayings, it pertained to one thing but by the time it was over it’s meaning was far reaching. It was wisdom of the highest level.

I was a coulselor for an at-risk youth home and the company decided to get a softball team together to help with staff moral and team building. And like most companies they forgot about the staff moral and team building part and decided that the league trophy was more important. They started hiring better softball players who didn’t work with us and before long the workers were on the bench watching the game. Several employees quit. I stayed because I felt that we were sending the wrong message to the kids that if you don’t like something you just quit. I wanted to send the message that you have to find a way to work within the system to make things work. Great message…….Right!

Wrong! I stayed until one game where all of the employees were on the bench and people were getting pissed. Things got heated. A fight almost broke out. I almost lost my job. I lost it. It was ugly. And the bad part is that I still feel like I was 100% correct. Everything about what they were doing was wrong. It sent a bad message to the kids. It made employee moral much worse. They never admitted that they were wrong. We never had another softball team. Everything about it went bad but I did learn a valuable lesson. Even though I had the best intentions. Even though my message was a great message. Even though I was right in the end. I also allowed the situation to outrun my tolerance. I was trying to do right but I stayed one game too many. I didn’t read the room. These people weren’t going to do right and eventually I was going to blow a fuse. I ended up making myself look bad and very unproffesional because I wasn’t honest with myself about where my line in the sand was. No matter how good my intentions were I shot myself in the foot because I didn’t know when it was time to let it go.

Yes, this story was about a very bad softball team and sports and all of that but it was much more than that. Sinse that day I have had to ask myself many times if I am biting off more than I can chew. If I am not being realistic about how foul people can be? Am I being honest about if this is a war that can be won? Will I damage my own message by staying in the game too long? I don’t know who originally said it or if they worded it differently but I will tell you this much……If you don’t want to make an absolute fool of yourself “Don’t let your willingness to do the right thing outrun your tolerance!”

#dailyword #innerpeace #motivation #geminimusing