How to Be a Better Complainer
There’s a lot to gripe about. Here’s how to complain more productively.
A while back, when in-person gatherings were still a thing, my wife and I were hanging out with a couple we hadn’t seen in a while. When we said our goodbyes, I immediately began grumbling about how much they complained about everything.
My wife just looked at me in confusion. “Are you listening to yourself?” she asked.
Oh.
The average person complains between 15 to 30 times a day, according to Will Bowen, the author of The Complaint-Free World. Complaining is normal — we’re emotional creatures, and especially these days, the world seems to be giving us a lot to complain about. Some research that suggests complaining can actually be a useful tool for bonding with others and processing emotions.
Still, it’s easy to get into the habit of constantly complaining, emitting negativity, and falling into a trap of always seeing the worst. While I’ll always have gripes, I’ve learned to complain in a more productive way with these five steps.
Track your complaints for a day
Just as tracking the number of times we check our phones can jolt us into becoming more self-disciplined about mindless scrolling, we can…
