Week three

Alright, I will have to admit that I haven't gotten better at recording my complaint record. I thought about lying, but it's just not worth it. Plus I can't lie about anything.

The biggest impact I've noticed is the perspective I've gained from really thinking about whether or not something is worth complaining about. I've also noticed that it really is necessary to complain in a constructive manner at times. Like, if something just isn't going well, or if it's not going the way I expected, it helps to talk to a friend or family member about it just to see what kind of advice they can offer. And sometimes it helps just to talk about it aloud to think of changes that can be made for improvement.

So, back to perspective. I knew this was going to be a big benefit of reduced complaining at the beginning of this project. So far, it has worked out - even when little annoying things happen that I might typically complain about in a social manner, I stop and really think about whether or not that little thing is going to negatively impact my day as a whole. Usually I know it's not going to, and it will be something I forget about pretty quickly. So why bother even bringing it up to somebody? This makes me think of the quote "Little people talk about other people. Average people talk about things. Great people talk about ideas." (author unknown, of course) Maybe when I'm tempted to talk about a little thing like that in a social situation, I will talk about ideas instead! That would make my conversations much more interesting. :) Overall, I love the perspective-taking that I'm doing with this project because it really makes me stop and think "is this really that bad?" I've always believed that people always want what they don't have. For instance, I hear people in school say that they can't wait to graduate and get a job. I also hear people who work full-time say that they wish they were back in school. While I can see the benefits to both of these situations, my goal is going to be "to be happy with what I have RIGHT NOW." Reducing the amount of complaining I do is allowing me to take the perspective required to really accomplish this goal and, so far, it's going great!