Tolerance, The Pathway towards Self-Leadership

“Knowing others is intelligence; knowing yourself is true wisdom. Mastering others is strength; mastering yourself is true power.”

Tao

How many problems do we have with others? We live in a world of differences. Everyone has their own opinion, their lives and their inner and outer world. We live with people who are different; who do not think as we do, nor they want what we want.

After looking into the self, we have found what we have. Now, it is time to go out, face the reality and to live with it. Tolerance works as a powerful armor that does not allow we get affected by what comes from outside.

For our defense, we can build castles of sand, which are so tall that we can live in them, but they won’t stand to the slightest change of tide. When a strong wave comes, the dream is over.

In the ancient times, fortresses and castles were made in such a way that enemies could not access easily. However, human fortresses are fragile and they go down with any wind. It seems the world  is now at a battlefield where bosses fight against employees, parents against their children, governments against their people; all are against all. If not externally, internally we live in prevention. And it is now, more than ever, when fortresses must be reinforced, but not with sand and rock; with positive qualities.

The quote from Tao, which means literally Pathway, is in itself the basic key for tolerance; to be wise and to have power. Tolerance is not a state of supreme effort in which a person hates whatever he or she has to tolerate, looking at the watch all the time to see when that is going to end. In this world where we live, none wants to be a martyr, all of us want to be happy and we have to accept that.

If we do want to be happy, we can reach the conclusion that the other person who is causing us such a problem is upset with something; his or her own happiness was stolen. But through tolerance, I am able to give them that happiness back. Tolerate does not mean to create wrinkles, but to avoid them, to have a healthier physical and mental life.

(partial extract from the book El Camino hacia el Autoliderazgo)