Implications of Completely Eliminating Complaining

There is a new movement that urges people to completely eliminate complaining from their lives. The idea is that if you see something that you consider wrong, then either (1) work to fix it, or (2) accept it as the way things are. Sitting around complaining produces a disempowered attitude and is toxic to your spirit. In a group situation, it can produce toxic effects on the attitude of the entire group.

I thought this would be easy for me, until I started to consider the implications. The goal is to change your attitude, not just your outward behavior. So that means ending all internal complaining about how people, or the world in general, has treated you unjustly. That is harder. Then it occurred to me that it also means eliminating impatience, because impatience is really internal complaining that the world is just not moving fast enough to suite you. It also means eliminating anger, since anger is just complaining taken to an emotional extreme. This is really challenging, but it gets even worse.

Did you ever beat up on yourself for missing an important meeting or event? Did you ever feel that if you were just a better and more dedicated person you wouldn’t have missed that appointment? In reality, missing an event should not be viewed as a moral failure; it should be viewed as a failure in your scheduling process – something that you can work to correct. This is just an example of a wider issue. For me, one of the hardest parts about eliminating any complaining from my life is to stop complaining and beating myself up for all those times when I did not live up to my expectations. This is a challenging task for anyone, but one with large potential rewards in terms of enhancing your spirit and attitude towards life.