Maya Angelou was a legendary author and celebrated poet. She was motivational and inspirational in her own right and there are a great number of things that she said and wrote that I personally find impactful. I keep going back to this one in particular:
If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.
This quote comes from her book Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now — a spiritual classic in which the author in her inimitable style talks about living well and the power that we all have to shape our lives. She strictly prohibits complaining, cribbing and whining. In the same book she writes, “Whining is not only graceless, but can be dangerous. It can alert a brute that a victim is in the neighbourhood.”
Complaining is such a waste of time. It is so easy to complain about everything and everyone. It can start at any time anywhere. You may complain about your job today and tomorrow it could be about your friends or colleagues, how busy you are, how tired you are, how nobody loves you or cares for you.
Complaining and whining are two habits that creep upon us quietly and stick to us without our even realising that we are carrying this unnecessary burden. The worst thing is the negativity that these two bring in their wake.
When we constantly complain about one thing or another we repel people. Who likes to listen to someone whine all day long about how heroic they are and yet never get their due? Would you like to be in the company of someone who cribs about their state of affairs all day long?
What has complaining ever done for anybody? Does complaining about the weather change it? Will complaining about your circumstances change them?
The answer is a big loud no. Doing something about the problem or changing our attitude towards it are the only ways to get it out of our way.
It is a challenge to break the shackles of this habit but it is a challenge for the strong at heart and I am sure that any one of you who decides to quit complaining right now can benefit from these tips:
Stop it right away: Yes, now. Just this very moment. Make a conscious decision and say to yourself I will not utter a single complaint in the next 24 hours about a person or a situation. Watch yourself closely and be conscious of your commitment.
Choose positivity: This will automatically flow into your life once you consciously choose to reject the negativity that is the result of constant cribbing. The positive force will catch you by the hand and pull you out of the well of negativity.
If you make it your preferred choice once, I assure you, you will want to choose it over and over again rather than dwell in negativity. Positivity brings you solutions while acknowledging the problem. But at the same time positivity will push you to march forward rather than stay put and complain.
Let it go: All this doesn’t mean there won’t be problems or they won’t irk you. All said and done things do get to us at times and it is okay to vent your anger or frustration. But the important thing is to let it go after some time. It is pertinent to not be caught in its hold.
Readers, if you have questions send a mail to Aanandika Sood and she will certainly have a response for you.