Welcome to the final day of this challenge. I promised you a brief summary of what we talked about this week.
As always, become aware of your complaining. See if there are patterns to your complaints. What are you complaining about? When is it happening most often? What information do they have to give you? What are your feelings and what thoughts are behind those negative feelings?
When you catch yourself complaining, ask yourself “So what do I want?” What expectations, hopes or desires aren’t being fulfilled? What can you do to change that?
If you’re complaining because you feel stuck and don’t know how to create the changes you want in your life, get some help. Coaching and counseling can help you deal with the blocks that are getting in the way of your fulfillment. You deserve to be happy and live a meaningful life.
I would like to add one more source of complaining (and I’m sure that there are more). We tend to complain when we aren’t taking care of ourselves. That’s when we tend to be more vulnerable and have a shorter fuse. So you might find yourself being crankier if you are short on sleep, aren’t eating well or if you’re ill.
Here’s a wonderful example of shifting perspective to avoid complaining from Suzanna Gratz, publicist extraordinaire. Suzanna was talking about the weather in the Pacific Northwest which is notoriously wet and cold at times. “The rain and cold today is only going to make next weekend’s warm forecasted sunny days more beautiful with the flowers. How lucky are we to have green grass and flowers in June!” Now how’s that for finding the positive in a situation? Thanks, Suzanna!
A great big thank you also to Mike Street from Australia who told me about the “A Complaint Free World” campaign at http://www.acomplaintfreeworld.org. Will Bowen has written books about a complaint free world and complaint free relationships and you can read about and buy them on the site. Thanks, Mike!
Thank you to those brave individuals who have taken part in this challenge and have commented here or personally to me at [email protected].
Thank you as well to all the wonderful people in this community who take the time to read my newsletter and this blog. I know how busy you are and I really appreciate you spending your precious time with me.
Finally, (this is starting to sound like an Academy Award speech!) thanks to all of you who contact me and who let me know that you are listening and hearing and being helped to create more meaningful and fulfilling lives.
Every single one of you makes it worth my time and energy to do what I do. I wish you joy.
With warmest regards,
Anne
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Copyright Anne Pustil 2011, http://www.CoachingInANutshell.com