Below is the blog post article that I found about how hard
it is to take the 24 hour “no complaining” challenge. We tried last year for a day, and I remember
talking with several staff members about how they didn’t make it 20
minutes. It is a difficult thing to
realize how much negativity we put on others by complaining. It truly goes beyond “venting” to attention
seeking, and it is very subtle. It takes
a lot to be cut off in traffic on the way to work and not complain. Hard to reframe that to “I sure hope they are
ok, and get to their destination safely…I am glad that I am on time to not have
to worry like they are.” But, the
positive element vs. negative cannot be ignored. We can easily get bogged down simply by
complaining because we are dwelling in the negativity. We are getting it too
much power over us.
I want to challenge you this weekend to find a day…and just
do it! Don’t complain at all…reframe
things to focus on the positive. See if
it provides you with more energy…see if others around you have more
energy. As Jon Gordon says…don’t be the
energy vampire.
The
24 Hour No-Complaining Challenge
By Kim
Strickland, September 20, 2011 at 9:03 am
Go ahead, try it. I dare
you. Try to go twenty-four hours without complaining. I am incapable. I've
tried several times. And I don't consider myself a real, true complainer (you
know the type). Although regular readers of my blog may beg to differ, seeing as
how I can sometimes rant on for upwards of five hundred words. However, being a
whiner is not the way I would, or want to, define myself.
We're raising our kids to
not be complainers. Whining is not tolerated in our house. And we put-up with
very little drama. This is not just because it's all so annoying. (But it is
mostly because it's all so annoying.) It's about the power of attraction. Complaining
is a form of attention-getting for all the negative things in your life. And
who wants to attract more negatives into their lives?
It doesn't sound very
hard, does it? Just stop complaining. Yet the dictionary defines the verb
"complain" as:
1. to express
dissatisfaction, pain, uneasiness, censure, resentment, or grief; find fault.
2. to tell of one's
pains, ailments, etc.: to complain of a backache.
3. to make a formal
accusation.
By this definition, it
would mean most of us would have to cease all conversation completely. Just
listen, the next time you're having a conversation. As a fiction writer, I know
stories aren't interesting unless they involve conflict, and complaining is a
form of describing conflict, I suppose, but maybe we should come up with a
better way to make our stories interesting (colorful, fictitious names for the
characters perhaps?).
As any good new age
woo-hoo knows, the first step in fixing a problem is recognizing you have one
and I began to notice how much complaining I was actually doing. I'd find
myself dumping all the negative experiences I'd had during the day on my poor
husband night after night. I don't know if it was even conscious or not, this
need for me to vent as a way to release all the negativity, but recently it
occurred to me: Maybe I am a complainer. Not wanting to attract any more
negativity into my life, I decided it might be a good idea for me to stop
complaining about stuff. (A great idea, says the husband.)
It didn't sound too hard.
Until I tried it. When I was paying attention, I realized so much of what I
said could be construed as a complaint. I found myself hacking my watch to
restart my 24-hour-no-complaining-clock every fifteen-minutes. Finally, I just
gave up, vowing simply to try to do better. Of course I'm disappointed in my
inability to stop completely, but I suppose I shouldn't complain about it.
Happy Friday!
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