"The greatest discovery of my generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitudes of mind." William James
Have you watched the news? Have you read the paper? Have you talked to someone in the grocery store? How about a fellow REALTOR? Or even one of the other parents at your child's school?
About what, you ask? About anything. Absolutely, anything. And have you heard; the sky is falling, the sky is falling, the sky is falling!!!! All around us, we are being bombarded with negativity, doom and gloom and my personal favorite WHINING!
Yep, that thing we told our children not to do. That thing that can set our teeth on edge and ruin a perfectly good day.
* Whine: v. To utter a plaintive, high-pitched protracted sound. To complain or protest in a childish fashion.
People everywhere are whining about everything. Nothing in their lives is going right. They are miserable and by gosh, they are going to share it with the WORLD! If they HAVE to be unhappy, then so do we!
I am not ignorant. I know what's going on in the world. And much of it is scary and it is worrisome. But when did whining like a 3 year old become the response to a challenge? When did it become society's norm to moan and groan about the sorry state of affairs in the world instead of finding solutions?
Iran has the ability to send a nuclear bomb. Our troops are fighting a war in Afghanistan. The economy stinks. There are too many unemployed people. And this is only the tip of the iceberg. There are so many more concerns facing us. So many more hurdles to leap.
Every one of these things is worthy of our attention, time and energy. We need to work on solutions, not whine about it. It may be that we need to use our vote to change Washington. Or we need to pray for peace. How about shopping locally to help your local economy?
And then you have the people who whine, just to whine.
"My latte was not hot enough today." (you had a latte? some people don't even get breakfast.)
"That lady in front of me has 13 items and this line is only for 12 or less." (and she has a sick child at home and is in a hurry. How is this hurting you?)
"I don't have enough business. People are just so difficult to work with." (maybe it's you, not them.)
"My buyer's want to see more properties. Can you believe it?" (can you believe how fortunate you are to have buyers to work with?)
"My feet hurt. I am so tired of showing property." (you have feet? some don't. you have work? many don't.)
Folks, we aren't going to be able to jump these hurdles by whining. We are going to have to pull ourselves up by the bootstraps and DO SOMETHING! And one of the things we need to do is stop WHINING!!
We need to take a good, hard look at ourselves and how our negative words are affecting us and those around us. We need to stop complaining and start seeking solutions.
We need to learn gratefulness. It can't all be bad, can it? I've known people who didn't have a pot to pi$$ in and they still managed to smile, be cheerful and treat the world like their oyster. They weren't complaining about what they didn't have. They were grateful for what they did have.
Give it a shot people. For one day, no whining, no complaining. See how you feel at the end of the day. Was it an easier day? Did people respond to you differently when you behaved positively instead of negatively? Were you happier?
It's a challenge, no doubt about it. We've all fallen into the habit. But we can change that, we can make a difference. Just takes a little effort.
Don't be a member of the Whiner family.
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