Kick The Complaining Habit!

In this first lesson, we are going to discuss what complaining and how it affects us. We are also going to learn how to differentiate between instrumental and non-instrumental complaining. We'll end with an exercise to help us begin to identify our own complaining patterns.

In this lesson, we are going to explore the reasons we complain. Like all bad habits, there is a tradeoff to the behavior. It can help us feel understood or even help us bond with other people. But it comes at a price, including keeping us in a "holding zone," where we neither accept nor change a situation.

In this lesson, we are going to start learning different strategies to cut down on our complaining. This is going to include internal strategies like gratitude, but also environmental changes like limiting the amount of complaining we're exposed to.

For better or worse, our partners often take the brunt of our complaining. In this lesson, we are going to focus on communication strategies to both minimize our superfluous complaining and improve our ability to make needed complaints.

In the past several lessons, we've focused on reducing complaining, taking action steps, and making purposeful change. Unfortunately, not everything we complain about can be changed. In this lesson, we are going look at the things in life we have to accept and how to live gratefully regardless.

In this final lesson, we are going to explore different strategies for continuing to live a more complaint-free life, including taking on a complaint-free challenge, limiting sources of complaining, and having an accountability buddy. We'll end the course with a meditation on gratitude.