“Go 24 hours without complaining. (Not even once.) Then watch how your life starts changing”
I saw this on Facebook the other day and it really struck a chord with me. You see, I believe that complaining has become a habit for many of us, and Iike most habits I think that it is probably easier to see complaining in other people than in ourselves.
Elizabeth Scott, MS writes in her article titled, “Why Do We Complain? And When Should We Stop?”, that there are several reasons why we are prone to complaining. One reason is the need to vent. When I think of venting, I think of the bottle of seltzer water I drink on a regular basis. When I unscrew the cap, there is an immediate release of pressure and then it is over. (Unless the bottle gets shaken up again) If you are venting, that’s great and will feel an immediate sense of relief, but if you are just complaining to complain, that’s a bad habit and I think for most of us, its a habit to complain.
According to Elizabeth, another reason we complain is because validation feels good. We all want to feel normal, and it feels good to hear someone else say, “Yeah, I know, I’d be upset too if that happened to me”.
She goes on to list several more reasons why we complain, including that complaining to others opens us up to solutions from others and may give us another perspective, and that complaining gets things done (I’m personally thinking about my husband here and how that can be true about when I complain about things like the trash needing to be taken out).
So while we may have good reasons for why we complain, the question I’ve been asking myself is, “What’s the cost of complaining?”. And that brings me back to the challenge posted on FB. One way we can find out the cost of something is to stop doing it and see what comes to us as a result. 24 hours without complaining…Since I’m generally a positive person and I don’t think I complain much to begin with, 24 hours seems relatively easy for me. I’m going to try a week without complaining. Today is Wednesday December 11th, 2013 and I am committing to myself, with you all as my witnesses, to go 1 week without complaining. So if you run into me in the next week and you hear me complaining, please remind me of my commitment. I’d love to have some company on this journey into non-complainingdom (yes, I made up that word). Who wants to join me? How long would you like to try not complaining? Let’s see how our lives will change 🙂 Maybe we will start a trend!
Today’s author: Laura Hall is an iPEC certified life coach whose business, Hall Coaching, was established in 2009 with the vision of waking women up from the nightmares of “How did I get here?” and, “Is this as good as it gets?”, so that they can begin creating and living the life of their real dreams, hopes and desires. She offers both one on one as well as group coaching services. She can be reached at [email protected] or check out her website at www.hallcoaching.com