Do you ever catch yourself complaining too much? Your immediate reaction might be, “Me? Complain? Never.”
Take a minute and think about how often we complain to our friends, family, spouse, children, co-workers, and to ourselves. I’m sure you can come up with a few examples of when you complained about something or someone.
I believe in general, we sometimes forget how fortunate we truly are. We complain or get upset if we aren’t greeted fast enough when we sit down at a restaurant. We complain if the temperature of the room isn’t to our liking. We get upset if we have to walk further than what we expected to reach our destination.
I just finished spending a wonderful week with my parents in Mexico. We went to the beach, ate great food, snorkeled, played some fierce card games, laughed and made some great memories.
The resort we stayed at had twelve restaurants, six hotels and over one thousand employees. Every single employee I encountered from the bellboy, tram driver, maid, or gardener said hello and some would even put their hand over their heart as they greeted you. After a few days of being greeted by the employees, and remembering my high school Spanish of how to say ‘Good Morning’ and ‘Good Afternoon’, I noticed if I would start to complain about something.
Here I am in paradise and I found myself starting to complain about the most absurd things. I’m in Mexico; it’s hot. Does it make sense that I would start to complain about the weather? What was I thinking when we were seated at a table and I felt we weren’t getting fast enough service?
I caught my thoughts about wanting to complain and saw the employees literally running from table to table to accommodate the several tables they had to take care of. Who am I to complain about anything?
I am blessed that I have two legs; I was able to walk on the beach, jog around the large resort, and swim in the ocean. How many people would give anything to be able to do that?
I am blessed that I have the means to go on a vacation. Make special memories with my parents, pay for a plane ticket, and eat in nice restaurants.
Several months ago my friend challenged me to not complain for thirty days. I remember laughing, knowing it was going to be difficult. I think I lasted one week before I complained about something, and didn’t realize it until later on that day that I had complained.
It’s seems to be so engrained in our society that we b*&#@ about everything.
This last week brought to light the amount of complaining I do. Do you have the complaining ‘bug’ too? Am I alone here?
I became more conscious of it and started to catch myself, so that’s a start. I truly don’t have anything to complain about in my life. I’m more fortunate than most in the grand scheme of things. I’m just feeling humble after seeing people that I KNOW would give anything to be able to spend the week that I just had with my family.
The last night of our vacation, my parents and I went to dinner and had an amazing meal and listened to live musicians. My parents talked about how fortunate they were feeling that they can still go on vacations, and voiced a sense of feeling humble seeing the employees all week that were so kind to us at every turn.
It was such a beautiful time that we were able to be thankful and appreciative and put ourselves in check, that I’m challenging myself again to thirty days of no complaining…about anything.
Why not give it a try!
With Gratitude,
