What's Present?

I listened to the Art of Manliness podcast this morning. It was Episode #906, Stop Being a Complainer.

Brett's guest is Will Bowen, author of the book, A Complaint Free World. He shared insights on why people complain and how to break the habit.

It's a packed episode and I'd recommend it to everyone—because we're humans and we're all prone to the complaining habit. But the two insights that I really liked are:

• We can always find something to complain about. We can use circumstances as an excuse to avoid responsibility and accountability. We can complain about other people to make ourselves look good. Whatever the reason, we will find something if we go looking.

• Complaining is focusing on what's lacking. As opposed to gratitude, which is focusing on what's present.

Instead of looking for the tiniest inconvenience, look for things to be grateful for. Instead of focusing on the rain and how that's going to get you wet on your commute to work, remember the deal you closed yesterday or think about the dinner plans you have with your college friends. Instead of complaining about the colleague that you never got along with, compliment the others who make the office a little brighter and warmer and happier everyday.

So, is there anything that happened today that you're happy about? Excited about? What are you looking forward to?

Focus on what's present, not what's lacking.