I Can’t Complain
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I just finished reading A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen. Basically he came up with the idea to give people at his church bracelets and whenever they complained, they’d switch them to the other wrist to be more aware of their actions. Their goal was to go complaint free for 21 days.
It struck a nerve.
In trying to better myself, complaining is definitely something I can do without. It makes me feel dirty and negative, and I just don’t need that in my world. So I put a rubber band on my wrist and have been working toward not complaining.
It’s hard.
The first day I realized how much I do complain. I’ve had a day here or there without complaining (or else I forgot to notice that I did) but I’m a ways from my 21 days in a row.
When you do this exercise, you notice how much other people complain. I’ve just not responded when someone’s spewing negativity and they usually stop.
Max even got in the game, and when he whines, he’ll usually say, “Oh! That was a complaint!” and switch his band.
I urge you to take this challenge with me. Read the book if you’re interested, or just put on a rubber band and stop complaining.
2 Comments
1.
anonymouse commented on August 23, 2009 at 7:24 pm
I don’t think I could do this. Most of my complaining is about traffic – it’s my main annoyance and one of the reasons I would love to work from home more often – I’d probably end up getting in an accident because I was trying to keep switching the damn bracelet from wrist to wrist while going 70 on the freeway while drinking my coffee, checking my email and trying to manage a conference call.
2.
Orange County Babysitter commented on January 24, 2010 at 11:33 pm
The first time I really thought about not complaining as a goal for myself was when a friend described someone else as someone who never had a bad word to say about anybody. I reflected on my own communications and felt sad that that would NOT be my epitah. So I’ve been working ever since to change that. I like the bracelet idea, cuz I do forget during the day that that is my goal.