Two weeks ago I said I was going to try not to complain for the next 14 days. That period is up and it was an interesting experience. I definitely failed more than once, but I told many of the people around me that I was doing it and they were happy to call me out when I complained.
I have a couple takeaways from the experience:
- It’s hard to define complaining. I think you can tell facts with zero emotion and still be complaining. But those same words said at a different time of day might not be complaining. It’s tricky to pin down exactly what the bad behavior is, but just being reflective on your behavior is a net win. And if it causes you to keep your mouth shut because you aren’t sure if it’s complainig, that’s probably not a bad thing either.
- Once I had a better handle on complaining, I became accutely aware of people complaining around me. It’s easy to get sucked into that mentality. Bad behavior spreads more easily than good behavior.
Now that it’s over, I’m free to complain! Or not. Obviously the point of this was to break a habit and try to get on a better track. I’ll try to make this one permanent and pick up another one going forward.
No Complaining Debrief
I have a couple takeaways from the experience:
Now that it’s over, I’m free to complain! Or not. Obviously the point of this was to break a habit and try to get on a better track. I’ll try to make this one permanent and pick up another one going forward.