You are creating your life in every moment with the thoughts to which you give the most attention.
Most people will say that they are optimists. I do. Yet if you keep track of what you hear people say, you will soon realize that optimistic statements are not what is mostly spoken. Most of what we hear and what we each say actually is negative and pessimistic.
The problem with this is that it feeds on itself. The more you talk negatively, the more you want to talk negatively. And negativity is counter-productive or non-productive. It's not really even fun.
So I challenged myself after a colleague told me the story of a minister who had this realization about himself and decided to try to stop whining, complaining, or gossiping. He was surprised to find that it took him over 4 months to eliminate complaining from his daily language. His premise is that it takes 21 days to form a new habit, so he would wear a bracelet on his wrist and listen to himself speak. If he complained, whined, or gossiped, he would switch the bracelet to the other wrist and then start the 21-day count again.
Not until he went 21 days without switching wrists did he know he had formed a new habit of not complaining. It took him 4 months and the average this 3-year old project has found is about 6 months.
I'm on my 16th first day today and realizing that this is really hard. I think it is worthwhile even if it makes me pay better attention to what I say, because I know that it makes me think about what I will say more carefully and that makes me think better.
I hope I can do this in less than 6 months. It's gonna be an interesting journey.
You can learn more at A Complaint Free World.
If you wanna try, I have a few in my bag and I will give you your very own bracelet.
