Can you go a month without complaining?

• By candidasullivan
• May 1, 2019
• No Comments

Can you go a whole month without complaining? According to the dictionary, this is the formal definition of complaining.

complain
verb [ I ] UK /kəmˈpleɪn/ US /kəmˈpleɪn/

B1 to say that something is wrong or not satisfactory:
Lots of people have complained about the noise.
You’re always complaining!
[ + that ] He complained that his boss was useless and he had too much work.

B1 to tell someone formally that something is wrong:
If the service was so bad why didn’t you complain to the manager?

My goal is to stop giving a voice to the things that I don’t want in my life. The more that I complain, the more things I find to complain about. I don’t want to live my life speaking of things I don’t want. Therefore, I want to shift my mindset and only speak of things that I do want. I want to use my voice to praise my Lord and to speak of the goodness in my life.

We cannot complain and be grateful at the same time. Therefore, we have to decide which one we want to focus on.

Starting today, I am going to break my complaining cycle. I am going to shift my focus to gratitude. I want to fill my journals with the things that I love. Every day I am going to look continuously for more things to be grateful for. When the negative thoughts slip in, I am going to shift my attention back to love.

Let’s use our job as an example. We can complain about all the parts of it we don’t like or we can praise the parts of it we do like. We have the power to decide how we feel about something. If we only list the negative aspects of something and speak of the bad, then we can paint a picture in our minds of something horrible. Then, we start to feel horrible about it as well.

The same is true for the good. We can train our minds to look for the good in everything and everyone. I want to be a kind, compassionate, loving person. I want to be the type of person who makes other people feel better just by being around me.

When I feel the need to complain, I am going to practice gratitude, look for the good, and/or pray.

Will you join me? Will you make an effort to not complain about anything or anyone for at least 30 days?

Photo by MARK ADRIANE on Unsplash

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