Break the Illusion Blog by Davey Wavey

My day without complaining lasted the better part of 3.5 minutes, until I stepped outside into the raining/snowing/sleeting Toronto weather.

The idea to spend 24-hours without complaint was spurred on by an overheard conversation at my new Toronto gym. Talking to her trainer, a woman said, “It was absolutely…” and then paused. Hanging on her dangling sentence, I speculated at the descriptive adjective she might use to complete her thought. My prediction proved correct: “It was absolutely ridiculous,” she finished.

Given our tendencies to complain, I wondered how many more times people might describe situations, circumstances or things as ridiculous rather than beautiful, touching, meaningful or enlightening. I have no data on the subject, but presume that any study would demonstrate that humans are complainers. I suppose there are some among us that break the mold, but by and large, we seem to complain more than we praise.

So I decided to live my day differently. Instead of focusing on my complaints, I’d replace each complaint with a thought of gratitude, joy or cheer. My experiment didn’t last long, though don’t be discouraged to try it for yourself.

At the very least, you can try the 1:3 rule. For every one complaint, be grateful three times.

The truth is, we all have some things worth complaining about (like the Chinese food that I had the other night…). But we all also have innumerable things for which we could be expressing gratitude. While it’s unlikely that we’ll be unable to eliminate our complaints altogether, we can certainly shift some of our energy, attention and focus into the more fulfilling realm of gratitude and thanksgiving.

So for the time being, I’m done complaining about complaints.

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