Nov 07 2008
What Are You Complaining About?
I never used to think of myself as a complainer. Everything that happened in life was just another aspect of the way things were. I was alright with that.
Somewhere along the way I started considering the way things should be. When I would compare the way things should be with the way things were, I saw discrepancies. At first I just scratched my head in bewilderment. Then I started to complain.
Sometimes simply complaining brings results, but not usually. For the most part, complaining must be followed up with a healthy dose of action.
It’s a waste of time to complain about something that cannot be changed by action - eg. the weather, the date on the calendar, our age.
It’s also a waste of time to complain about something and not follow it up with action - eg. being upset about your weight and not trying to diet, being offended by human suffering and not offering service or financial aid to alleviate it, not liking your job or family life and not doing anything to change it.
I’m working on a list of my complaints. This will be a two column list: complaints I can fix with follow up action and, complaints I can do nothing about.
I’m going to throw the second column of the list away. Then I’m going to start adding action responses to the remaining list. What I can fix I will fix. What I can’t fix I will not complain about.
What are you complaining about?
