Reasons or excuses?
Like me, I’ll bet you have a story for just about everything! Why you can’t lose weight, why you can’t keep a budget, what you can’t learn a new language, why you can’t learn to dance…
- “I’m just big-boned.”
- “I’ve never been good with math.”
- “I’m too old.”
- “I don’t have time.”
- “I’ve always had two left feet.”
Like me, you probably know that the story you tell yourself is really just your reason or your excuse to ease the guilt or pain of the choice you know you’ve made.
And it probably doesn’t matter whether our story comes from our childhood or is just our current fiction, it still accomplished the same thing: removing our personal responsibility from the situation.
But our stories, our reasons, our excuses, our complaints are actually our rationalizations why we won’t/can’t/ shouldn’t change. And in expressing our discontent, we actually justify and perpetuate our difficulties.
As we do know…
The highest and most powerful form of energy is thought energy because what we think guides our feelings and actions, and even our lives.
And, when we verbalize what we are thinking, it magnifies the power of our thought and draws to us the folks who agree with our perspective (as you’ve probably noticed in the staff room or at that party.)
Life creates a loop that justifies our thoughts and our words. If we complain frequently, life will create a loop of self-sustaining misery (not exactly what we want!)
So are you thinking and speaking what you want to experience? Or what you don’t want to experience?
Either way, as Henry Ford said…
The idea of a Complaint-Free World came from a book by Rev. Edwene Gaines where she proposed eradicating complaining day by day until we go twenty-one consecutive days without a single complaint, thus creating a new habit.
I do NOT find it hard to believe that it typically takes folks four to eight months to successfully complete twenty-one days without complaining! It’s said that most of us seem to complain fifteen to thirty times a day without even being aware we are doing so.
I have yet to make it to 6 days. My personal challenge seems to be my “selective” awareness, meaning I have to…
- first notice that I have complained,
- then catch myself when I am complaining,
- and THEN choose not to complain.
Do you have any stories/reasons/excuses/complaints you’d like to change?
Ah well, self-awareness comes first, right?
Then self-direction.
And, always, patience with ourselves!
