Saturday, August 6, 2011

Are You A Complainer?

pos·i·tiv·i·ty [poz-i-tiv-i-tee]
–noun
1. the state of being positive: accepting the world as it is.
I have been participating in a study called "Cultivating Contentment" by Thomas Nelson. This is a great book that talks about how you can be more content with your life.  Last week the topic was "complaining" and as I talked with the group, we all agreed that for the most part people seem to either be "positive people" or "complainers".  The chapter that we read discussed reasons why people complain- as a form of small talk, because they compare themselves to others, because they lose sight what is really important in life. The book suggested everyone take home a package of Sweet Tarts and to eat one whenever we catch ourselves complaining this week.  The Sweet Tarts were to remind us to be sweet and not tart!  I consider myself to be a pretty positive person, and thought that this would be a good experiment to see how often I complain.  I caught myself only twice- once was a really big complaint!
The ways the book suggested and that our group came up with to be more positive were, first, to not compare yourself to others.  I once read that when you compare yourself to someone else, you could be comparing yourself on your worst day to them on their best day, besides you never know what someone else is going through! Second, whenever you feel like things are not going your way, instead of opening up your mouth to complain, count your blessings!  When you think about how much you are blessed with, it makes it hard to complain.  And third, things are not always perfect in this imperfect world- have a sense of humor and know that you will have good times and bad times, and hopefully in the end, we will all be in a perfect place with only perfect times!
How do you stay positive?

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13 comments:

Della said...

I stay positive by remembering just how far I've come. I am very lucky to be alive, and am grateful my illnesses have taken a back seat for awhile, and let me take the drivers seat.

Sabrina Lopez said...

Nice post!
Dropping by from Sunday stalker, I'm a new follower, please come visit me if you like :)

Marlee said...

I try not to be! Control what I can and don't worry about what I can't, right? Great blog, am a new follower :).

http://marleeindebt.blogspot.com/

Sarah said...

Keeping all things in perspective and having reasonable expectations that are based in reality help me stay positive. And I do try to count my blessings and make a big fuss about the GOOD STUFF... instead of letting the negative stuff suck the joy out of life.

Unknown said...

Wonderful post - I love the idea about the sweet tarts! Thank you so much for posting this, I LOVE reading positive inspirational messages. And btw, Winston Churchill? He rocks ;D

Stopping by and following from "Relax & Surf Sunday" - would love a follow back! :-)

http://www.guitartrump.blogspot.com/

Alex

Anonymous said...

I stay positive by remembering what my cousin told me when we were teenagers: Don't take life so seriously. No one gets out alive anyway.

Rach (DonutsMama) said...

Comparison is a very bad habit. The SweetTart idea is a good one--I'm afraid I'd eat so many though b/c I unfortunately have a tendency to complain.

ReadyOrNot said...

So true Mama! All very great advice! Thanks for commenting : )

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Corinna said...

I love the idea of using sweet tarts as a measurement throughout the day. I'm usually thankful for everything that I have, but I've been making a conscious effort to surround myself with positive people and those that help to improve my family and our relationships.

Plus if you know that things could always be worse, nothing really seems that bad!

newyearsresolutionexercise said...

Hi,I am following you from the blog hop.Your blog is very inspiring.It's a good to look for the bright side of everything.

joeh said...

If there was no bad stuff in your life, the good stuff would be bad.

Cranky Old Man

Carri said...

I stay positive by cutting out the people who make me miserable!

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