Stop Complaining and Start Creating a Life You Want

How content are you with your life?

If the first thought you had with that question was, “not at all” it’s time to figure out why, and do something about it. You don’t have to deal with the misery of your life anymore.

I know. There are hundreds of reasons why you can’t be content in life. But you know what? All of those reasons are excuses. Yes, there’s a difference.

Excuses lead to complaining. They are what make you feel stuck, and feel completely helpless and hopeless.

You don’t have to feel that way. You can stop complaining, by doing something about those complaints.

Turn Complaints into Action

So, how do you turn these excuses into a life you can be happy with? You start examining those excuses!

Step One: Start a Complaint Journal

Pay attention to everything that you complain about. You might want to keep a journal with you for one week, and just start by writing down every thought and comment you make that’s negative about your life.

Ask friends, co-workers, family members, or anyone else around you to help you identify complaints. Sometimes, it can be difficult to identify our own.

Step Two: Decide Which Ones Affect You the Most

At the end of the week, look at your list of complaints. Decide which ones affect you the most. Decide which ones make you angry, sad, or just frustrated. Circle them.

Step Three: Control What You Can Control First

Think about those complaints, and think about how possible it is to change them. For those that you can control, take another sheet of paper, and list all that you can do to stop that complaint from happening again. Start with those actions first.

Always start with what you can control to improve your life!

Step Four: Control the Uncontrollable Situations Indirectly

After you’ve worked on changing all of the controllable situations in your life, move on to something a bit more difficult – changing the uncontrollable situations.

You may not always be able to change bad situations in your life, but there’s always something you can do to change your reaction to those bad situations.

Let’s take an example:

Suzy has been working at a company for 10 years. She loves her position at the company, and hopes to be promoted in the next couple of years. The only problem is that she has one co-worker that she doesn’t like, and causes problems for her. She hates coming to work to face this co-worker, but she can’t do much about it since their offices are right next to each other, and they work on the same projects together.

As you can imagine, Suzy is in an unhealthy situation. Her emotional health is affected, and she endures further stress from this co-worker on top of her daily tasks she needs to get done. But what can she do? Quit? Well, that wouldn’t be fair since she does love her job, and she does see herself becoming promoted in the next couple of years.

The only thing that she can do is control her reactions to her co-workers antics.

• She can stop her co-worker in her tracks when she starts to upset her.
• She can always try to spend as little time as she can with her co-worker.
• She may also speak to her supervisor about some of her feelings about the co-worker, so that the amount of projects they work on together might be reduced.
• If that’s not possible, during the next project, she can split up the tasks for the project, and each can complete their tasks separately – that way, they spend the least amount of time together as possible.

…Your Turn

Think about your uncontrollable situations. Decide what you can do to alleviate some of the pressure they have on your life. It might just be a matter of implementing stress reduction techniques, or venting to a loved one. Think of ways you can control your reactions to the bad situation, and you should start to see how your life will seem much more bearable.

Start Creating the Life You Want Today!

Now, go to it. Record your complaints, so you can stop them by taking action to improve your life.