What do you suppose these situations have in common: 
- Annoying neighbors
- Incompetent coworkers
- Rebellious teens
- Noisy kids
- Out-of-sync marriage or love life
- Problematic in-laws
All of them invite us to point fingers, and to place blame on others for how we feel ourselves, and to complain to our friends about how awful we’ve got it with such problems everywhere we look!
You know by now (if you’ve been following my blog at all) that I’ve invited you in the past to make a choice between being a Winner or a Whiner in life.
Let’s take a look at what a whiner does — finds fault with what everyone else is doing, saying and even thinking… grumbles that life is unfair… mutters and bellyaches about how much better things would be if only others would listen and follow the rules.
On the other hand, if you want to be a happy WINNER in life…
- Stop complaining. Right now. Stop it!
- Stop blaming others.
- Simply accept the reality the way it is.
- Look for something to PRAISE in every person you meet.
The reason it works to praise other people even if you’re annoyed with some of the things they do, is that it takes your (and their) focus OFF of the things you dislike and ON the things you do like! Savvy teachers have known this for years — continuously praise the students for their good behavior instead of reinforcing the bad by yelling and bringing all your attention to that.
This is how you do dog training, too. But more about that another time. I just signed up Sugar Bear (14 month old Golden Retriever) for obedience classes.
to your happiness,
Evelyn Brooks