It’s a part of human nature to want to control things in our life. When things don’t go exactly our way, for many of us the first things we do is we get frustrated and complain.

“Why is this happening to me? It’s not fair.”

Here’s how to turn your complaints into success.

Disappointment is what we experience when things don’t meet our expectations. It’s OK to be disappointed, temporarily…and it’s OK to complain…once.

What does that mean?

Complaining is essentially the act of giving voice to our disappointment. And voicing our disappointment can set the stage for change. Change takes action on your part.

And if voicing your disappointment leads you to taking a personal inventory and figuring out where you went wrong, and that leads you to taking action, that’s good.

On the other hand, if you keep complaining and don’t take any action that’s NOT good.

Chronic complaining is destructive when it becomes an excuse not to take the constructive actions necessary for you to change. Chronic complaining is a crutch. It gives the complainer a continual excuse to fail and put off real progress.

Let’s say that you’re on a diet and you’re trying to lose 20 pounds. You’ve been working at it for a while, and you get on the scale to gauge your progress. If you miss your target weight loss for the week and fall short of your goal, it might be your first instinct to complain, “I’m never going to lose weight!”

That’s the complaint.

But then you have to assess that complaint. Is your complaint grounded in reality? Is it true? Or could it be that you weren’t disciplined enough in your diet during the prior week?

It’s important for you to figure out WHY you’re not making changes fast enough and then lay the plan to hit your goal in the next week. That’s constructive.

If your complaint leads to your reviewing WHY you are failing, and that then leads to action, that’s a good thing.

On the other hand, another person might similarly miss their weight loss goal, complain that they will never lose weight, then resign themselves and not develop a plan of action to remedy their situation.

That is when complaining is destructive.

Chronic complaining doesn’t change anything. Problems are a fact of life. The better you get at solving problems, the happier you will be. The most successful people are not the ones who have the least problems. They are the ones that have learned how to solve their problems constructively, and grow from them.

This week, keep this idea top of your mind. Anytime that you voice a complaint, ask yourself “What am I going do about it? Then give it some real thought, develop a plan, and take action on it. You’ll be glad you did.

Yours for a Healthy Lean Body,