I had a conversation with someone the other day that was
complaining about her lack of sleep. She
was not as productive as she wanted to be because she just couldn’t get the
proper amount of rest. I am a big
believer in the power of sleep so I tried to dig in and help.
But it didn’t seem like she wanted help. Every suggestion I made was “wrong.”
Drink some milk before bed…nope.
Read a book…don’t like to read.
Don’t take your phone to bed…don’t be silly.
And this went on until I said, “So you don’t WANT to sleep
then.” She of course protested. My guess is we have all had this scenario
play out. We have a friend or family
member that wants to complain about a situation, but they don’t want to do
anything to actually fix it.
This is victim thinking and it drives me crazy. If you really DO have a problem you want to
solve, you will need to try something new.
The old way is not working. It’s
broken. So when you immediately eliminate
every suggestion, you eliminate the desire for others to help you.
At that point you don’t want a solution…you want to
complain. I guess there is a place for that, but I am not interested.
Great piece Kirby. So often we become our own enemy. My college coach used to say all the time, "It's easy to complain (although he used a stronger word there), find a solution! Take a minute to watch this Pat Croce video -- on how to address "the complaint machine" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlpPugLwRss
ReplyDeleteLOVE it Frank! Great stuff. I will have to share that one!
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