2008-10-02

No Complaints

I'm putting myself out there. You know, I thought I was a pretty positive person. I have friends, I get along with my co-workers and I have a great family life. But until I took the complaint free challenge, I didn't realize how many times a day I complain.

“Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from complaining doesn’t necessarily mean putting up with bad quality or behavior. There is no ego in telling the waiter your soup is cold and needs to be heated up—if you stick to the facts, which are always neutral. ‘How dare you serve me cold soup…?’ That’s
complaining.”—Eckhart Tolle, “A New Earth”

The challenge is simple. Go to acomplaintfreeworld.org get a purple bracelet and put it on. Each time during the day when you complain, criticise, or gossip move the bracelet. When you have gone 21 days without complaining, you have changed your thought patterns and ceased complaining.

Why take the challenge? There are two things upon which most people will agree:
  1. There is too much complaining in the world.
  2. The state of the world is not the way we would like it.

Instead of focusing on what is wrong in the world, focus on how you want the world to be.

2 comments:

Jesse Milton said...

Good post! There is only one time that complaining is OK, and it is after you try to do this:

http://www.beastskills.com/elbow%20lever.htm

MikeB said...

Hey, I can do the part where he is on his knees with his hands on the floor.