365 Days With Self-Discipline: 365 Life-Altering Thoughts on Self-Control, Mental Resilience, and Success

Day 66: On Pointless Complaints

“But my nose is running!” What do you have hands for, idiot, if not to

wipe it? “But how is it right that there be running noses in the first place?”

Instead of thinking up protests, wouldn’t it be easier just to wipe your nose?

—Epictetus

 

63

Grumbling  about  everything  is  a  favorite  pastime  of  countless

individuals,  all  over  the  world.  It’s  incredible  how  much  time  and  energy

people waste on something as pointless as complaining, particularly when

they can do nothing about their source of protests.

It takes self-discipline to stop complaining — and a great deal of it if

you’re like most people, who can’t go even one day without voicing their

dissatisfaction with the world. Consequently, managing your complaints is a

great exercise to improve your self-control.

Starting today, try to go without complaining for as long as you can.

Whenever you catch yourself complaining, turn it into a solution, try to find

something good about whatever dissatisfies you, or let it go if the solution

is beyond your control or the problem isn’t worth your energy.

For example, if you’re at a restaurant and your meal isn’t as warm as

you’d like it to be, you can ask the waiter to heat it (turning a complaint into

a  solution),  consider  it  an  exercise  in  voluntary  discomfort  (finding

something good about the source of the complaint), or simply eat it, having

decided that complaining about it isn’t worth your energy .

Such mental training will not only improve your impulse self-control,

but also make you a more positive person. In contrast, what do you get out

of complaining besides ruining your mood?

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