Much Ado About Complaining: The Complain Challenge

Ennui. Haha. That's what I feel right now. I honestly don't know how I am able to blog. Okay moving on. Many moons ago, I did an anger challenge, where I went an entire week (or month?) without getting angry. I even came back with my results. I want to do something similar but not about anger. This time around, I want to do a complaining challenge. At first, I thought about doing it for an entire month, but that's a tall order. So I will do it for a week: I plan on going an entire week without complaining. The thing is, there is sooo much to complain about. Life can be pretty challenging. People are even more challenging. And sometimes things just don't go your way. So I find myself complaining a lot about these things, but I am  getting to a place where my own whiny ramblings are irritating me. I have therefore, decided to chill. I want to see how long I can go without complaining about one thing or another. I promise you, this was not inspired by anybody or anything. I literally woke up one day two weeks ago and decided to do this.

This will be hard. Maybe even harder than the anger challenge. Instead of complaining, I will express gratitude towards God for something he has done for me. This will take conscious and very intentional willpower to adjust my brain. And yes, it sounds cliche to exchange complains for gratitude. But it works. I will fix what I can and just ignore what I have no control over. Simple. The truth is for most things, there is just no way we have any control over these things. Not to mention, apart from a few people who have everything going on for them, most people are having such a hard time with work and life. Navigating the challenges of work and life is freaking hard. But enough. For one week. One whole week, I want to be free. 

Let me be clear, by itself complaining is not completely terrible. In fact, we sometimes need to rant and it can be cathartic. The thing with seeing things so black and white is, for someone like me, the complete opposite is nonchalance but we will see. I say we will see, because I am not exactly sure I want to be nonchalant about my life. Don't get it twisted, life is hard out here. Forget all the pretty pictures on Instagram, well formulated words on Twitter, or What's App stories; people are going through hell. So honestly, if you find yourself complaining a lot, it's okay. Don't feel too bad.

I know this is is very unlike what people talk about or post about, but this is real life. People are too busy dealing with real life to pay you any mind, and that's fine. People tell you to suck it up or to smile through the pain or whatever cliches people post on their feeds. However, cliches became cliches for a reason. So maybe you might need to listen to people who ask you not to complain once in a while. Or maybe not. I will try this and per usual, come back with results and tell you how it went. I will try to post feedback in exactly a week from today. So help me God.

Love,

I