A Complaint Free World by Will Bowen

Author:Will Bowen [Bowen, Will]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
ISBN: 978-0-7704-3646-9
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: 2013-02-04T22:00:00+00:00

I commented simply, “Hang in there, you’re on the right track.”

Becoming Complaint Free is not a race. It’s not a magic pill. It’s a process of transformation. It’s unlearning and adopting a whole new way of being. It’s leaving behind a deeply ingrained habit. And this takes time.

Becoming a Complaint Free person is ceasing to rail against that which cannot be changed. As I write this, I’m sitting in the train station in San Jose, California. My train was scheduled to leave at 9 A.M. but has not shown up to the depot. The time is now 10:30, and I’ve just been informed that the new departure time is 12 P.M.—three hours late. Depending on how you read what I’ve just written, you might think I’m complaining.

For myself, I know my energy about the situation. I am sitting on the train platform, enjoying the spring morning and a cup of cinnamon spice tea while typing on my laptop, sharing something about which I am passionate. I am happy. I am grateful for the morning. The train leaving late is a wonderful gift because it has given me more time to write. I get to do what I love in a beautiful environment.

Hmm, but what if I don’t want to wait. Perhaps if I complain loudly and angrily to the ticket agent or if I complain to everyone seated around me, maybe I could get the train to leave sooner. That would work, right?

Of course not.

And yet we see people do this all the time. The train will get here when it’s supposed to and it will be the perfect time.

I was recently interviewed by a radio morning show. One of the announcers said, “But I complain for a living—and I get paid very well for complaining.”

“Okay,” I said, “and on a scale of one to ten, how happy are you?”

After a beat he said, “Is there a negative number?”

Complaining may benefit us in many ways, such as gaining sympathy and attention—it may even gain us a radio audience—but being happy is not a benefit derived from complaining.

And you deserve to be happy, to have the material possessions you want, to have friendships and relationships that fill your heart and satisfy your desires. You deserve to be healthy and to have a career you enjoy.

Take this in: Anything you desire, you deserve.

Stop making excuses and begin to move toward your dreams. If you are saying things like “Men are commitment-phobic,” “Everyone in my family is fat,” “I’m not coordinated,” or “My high school guidance counselor told me I’d never amount to anything,” you are making yourself a victim. Victims don’t become victors. And you get to choose which you will be.

Complaining is like a note from Epstein’s mother. Remember the show Welcome Back, Kotter? Juan Epstein, one of the students in this 1970s classroom comedy, would often bring notes to school to get out of doing things he didn’t want to do. A note might read, “Epstein can’t take the test today because he was up all night discovering a cure for cancer.

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