Another simple day. Here’s your task:
No complaining.
That’s it. No whining, crying, or complaining
.
Read that carefully. No complaining doesn’t mean you can’t acknowledge a problem. What it does mean is that your energy and words are directed toward the person who can help with a solution.
Will Bowen, author of the book “A Complaint Free World,” says that complaining:
- Keeps a person focused on the problem
- Damages a person’s health
- Is destructive to a person’s relationships
- Limits a person’s career success
He highlights that our minds and bodies are connected.
What we say, our bodies feel.
Changing the habit of not complaining can transform your health, relationships, career and life; however, Bowen says complaining is like bad breath, “It’s a lot easier to recognize when it comes out of someone else’s mouth!” So how do we start to identify our bad breath? To help make this change, Bowen proposes a 21-day complaint free challenge.
To begin, participants are given a purple bracelet. Every time they complain, verbally or otherwise, they switch the bracelet to the other wrist. The goal is to go 21 days-in-a-row without complaining. This is the basis for our challenge today.
Put a rubber band on your wrist.
Every time you complain today, switch the rubber to the other wrist.
The goal is to be complaint free, but even if that doesn’t happen,
you will still end the day more aware than you started!
Following is a presentation by Bowen. The video is set to start near the end as Bowen explains the 21-day Complain Free Challenge.
The whole video is an hour-and-a-half in length, so you may not have time to watch it right now; however, I encourage you to make time to listen to it as it is really about communication, focusing on what we say and how we say it. Remember, you can have the audio playing without having to sit in front of your device to watch it.
Here’s to a complaint-free day!
Remember at the end of it, to spend five minutes writing in your gratitude journal. Your thoughts create your life, but your words indicate what you’re thinking. And what we say, our bodies hear! Think positive!!