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21- Day Complaint Free Challenge

 

Did you know that it takes people on average 6 months to be able to go 21 consecutive days without complaining?

It makes going complaint-free easier said than done.

I heard about this challenge on CBC’s Tapestry 

How does it work?

For 21 days you cannot complain, blame, criticize or gossip.  You wear a wristband and you switch it to the other wrist as soon as you catch yourself doing any of the above.  These are the rules set out by Will Bowen who will even send you a purple wrist band (I hear they are on back order), along with his book.

What do I do instead?

Does it mean you are just going to be positive and not notice anything negative around you? Not at all. It means you express what you see, but you stay out of judgment and blame and you rephrase it.

Instead of saying:

“I can’t believe that team is so incredibly slow. They should have finished that part ages ago!”

Say:

“The team has not delivered the results at the promised and agree upon time. I am curious as to what happened and I am going to find out.”

It also works at home.

Instead of saying:

“Ah, all you do is watch your youtube (insert favourite social media), I can’t believe you didn’t clean the kitchen!”

Perhaps try:

“We agreed that you could clean the kitchen. I see it has not been done. What happened? What is your plan for getting it done?”

Language Matters

When you are in blame, you cannot be in kind and supportive mode at the same time. When you complain, you cannot be solution-oriented at the same time.

You may not have a choice in what triggers or annoys you, but you do have a choice in the language you choose. It takes more effort to reframe you complaint into neutral language, but it is well worth it to create a kinder, more productive work place. When we are in a positive frame of mind we see more solutions (the happiness advantage) Blaming, gossiping and complaining do not contribute to this positive frame of mind.  

Maya Angelou had some thoughts on a world without complaints:

 

Join in

You can get the official plastic band or the app, but any bracelet or elastic wrist band will do.

I am getting started today - I bet it won’t be as easy as it seems.  

Join in and share what you discover. 

 

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Guest — Martin Durocher
Sounds excellent. I actually heard the author of Positive Intelligence speak today and it resonated with me. We could all use mor... Read More
Tuesday, 18 October 2016 20:26
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