It’s Time to Stop Complaining – 045
In episode 45, it’s a new month and it’s time for a new challenge. This month we are going to improve our awareness about the words that we say and be mindful to stop complaining, criticizing and gossiping. We know that our words are a reflection of our thoughts and together they are extremely important in what we attract and the life we lead!
I’m diggin’ a TV show called The Fix that has a connection to our online pretend best friend Gretchen and Jenny’s diggin a Netflix show with Brene Brown called The Call to Courage.
My win is related to a pretty fantastic Duolingo streak and Jenny’s learn is related Easter candy overindulgence and getting back on track.
Tune in and Listen Below
What You’ll Hear (and don’t want to miss!)
1:30: We explain what we will be doing for this month’s challenge which is all about not complaining, criticizing or gossiping.
3:49: The details of the challenge start here:
We have ordered these complaint free bracelets, and we will start the month by putting them on our wrist, and we will switch wrists every time we complain, gossip or criticize. Remember that we are concerned only with complaints that we speak.
For the purposes of our challenge, we’re working only to eradicate complaints that are expressed. If you think it, it’s free. It doesn’t count. You will find that as you say fewer and fewer complaints, your mind will produce fewer and fewer of them. We’ll talk more about this later this month but for now, just focus on any griping that actually escapes your mouth. You can use anything that you can move from wrist to wrist, an elastic even works fine.
You could even move a coin or a pebble from one pocket to the other. It doesn’t matter what the object is, as long as you’re moving it every time you complain, gossip or criticize and keeping track of how many days you can go without needing to move it. Every time we switch the bracelet is day 1, and we will have the goal to make it through each day without complaining, with the ultimate day of making it 21 days without complaining.
This challenge takes the average person 4-8 months to get to the 21 day streak of not complaining, which we will attempt, but we want to really focus on getting a great start in May, and hopefully you’ll try it too.
5:36: Who are You Anyway: Are You a Complainer?
11:15: What are You Diggin’ Lately?: This week I’m diggin’ a TV show called the Fix that has a connection to our online pretend best friend and Jenny’s diggin’ a Netflix show with Brene Brown called Call to Courage.
16:41: You Win or You Learn: My win this week relates to a super fantastic streak on Duolingo and Jenny’s learn has to do with overindulging in Easter treats.
22:30: We wrap it up for this week. Next week we will check in to see how Jenny and I are doing with this new challenge.
Resources + Links Mentioned in This Episode:
Right click here and save as to download this episode to your computer
Book: A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen
Website: Will Bowen; A Complaint Free World (this is where you can order the bracelets if you are so inspired)
Ted Talk: Will Bowen; A World Without Complaining
Oprah Appearance by Will Bowen
TV Show: The Fix
Netflix Show: Brene Brown, The Call to Courage
Key Quotes:
“Just remember, you can’t complain your way to health, happiness, and success. Complaining is an epidemic that is destroying our happiness, relationships, health, and success. The problem is that most people aren’t even aware when they complain.” As Will Bowen says, “Complaining is like bad breath- – you notice it when it comes out of someone else’s mouth, but not when it out of your own.”
Share your thoughts… We’d love to hear from you!
What was your biggest take away from this episode? Are you ready for a month of no complaining? What do you think will be the hardest part?
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The Improvement Project podcast is hosted by Dr. Peggy Malone and Jenny Couse. Peggy is a health care provider who encourages her patients every day to create better habits associated with their health and wellness. She is wife to the hilarious and heavily bearded John, with whom she takes many adventures. Dr. Peggy is also a human being on a mission to create better habits for herself and by doing so, she hopes to inspire others to take up the challenge with her! Jenny is a marketing professional in the international trade sector. She and her husband Jeff are parents to hilarious 5 year old Ethan. Her year of monthly habit resolutions in 2015 piqued her interests in how habits are created and best kept.
Join them weekly to explore how to create healthy habits that stick on the journey to becoming better humans!
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Until next time,
Let’s get to work on improving your most important project. That’s YOU! Stay focused and get after it!
Thank you so much for listening.
Big Love,
Peggy and Jenny
