“But my nose is running!” What do you have hands for, idiot, if not to wipe it? “But how is it right that there be running noses in the first place?” Instead of thinking up protests, wouldn’t it be easier just to wipe your nose?
—Epictetus
Grumbling about everything is a favorite pastime of countless individuals, all over the world. It’s incredible how much time and energy people waste on something as pointless as complaining,
particularly when they can do nothing about their source of protests.
It takes self-discipline to stop complaining — and a great deal of it if you’re like most people, who can’t go even one day without voicing their dissatisfaction with the world. Consequently, managing your complaints is a great exercise to improve your self-control.
Starting today, try to go without complaining for as long as you can. Whenever you catch yourself complaining, turn it into a solution, try to find something good about whatever dissatisfies you, or let it go if the solution is beyond your control or the problem isn’t worth your energy.
For example, if you’re at a restaurant and your meal isn’t as warm as you’d like it to be, you can ask the waiter to heat it (turning a complaint into a solution), consider it an exercise in voluntary discomfort (finding something good about the source of the complaint), or simply eat it, having
decided that complaining about it isn’t worth your energy .
Such mental training will not only improve your impulse self-control, but also make you a more positive person. In contrast, what do you get out of complaining besides ruining your mood?
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