Since Christmas is a time for good cheer and presents and all that, I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how I can get more into the Christmas spirit, especially since I seem to be so busy most of the time.
And I don’t know how I came upon the idea, but I’ve decided that the “gift” I’m going to really work on giving this holiday season so I can contribute to the merriment of the holiday is:
I’m going to try and not complain at all during the month of December.
For some people, this goal might seem pretty weak sauce, but I’ll have you know—-I recently realized that I’m basically the Cache County Complaining Champion. This is a pretty recent discovery, actually: I don’t know what exactly triggered it, but I started catching myself and counting every time I was complaining in the past week or so, and I quickly saw that I complain a LOT.
About pretty much everything, too:
The weather (especially the weather!), about my students, about the politics of education, about how busy I am, blah blah blah.
Anyway, I’ve had enough:
I am going to have a complaint-free December from this moment on.
A long time ago, I read some information on this site called A Complaint-Free World, which promotes a “21-day Complaint-Free Challenge.” According to their site, the average person complains 15-30 times a day (I’m definitely on the upper end of that), and that complaining can be defined as expressing pain, discontent, or grief. I read some stuff on that same site about further definitions of complaining, and I realized that something as seemingly simple as saying, “It is so COLD today!” usually comes off as complaining.
Anyway, if you want to join me, we could all improve our own personal little worlds by complaining less. (I started today, and I only complained, like, five times instead of the usual 30. So, progress!)
Are you a big complainer?
