Stop Complaining!

[Hootad Binky]

Take the 21-day "no complaint" challenge! Wear the bracelet! I'm considering it...

Pastor who pioneered the complaint-free movement gets the word out as an author

By HELEN T. GRAY

The Kansas City Star






A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted, was published this month by Doubleday and is being sold in major bookstores.

When Bowen, 47, approached his congregation with an idea for living complaint-free lives, he never expected what would follow.


He had just a kernel of a thought, that the world would be a better place if people stopped complaining.


So in July 2006 Bowen handed out purple bracelets to church members and challenged them to go 21 days straight without complaining, criticizing or gossiping.


Each time they did, they were to switch their bracelets to their other wrist and start again. Those who succeed in making it 21 days — about the time it takes to break a habit, he said — receive a “Certificate of Happiness.”
From the beginning, the church offered to send bracelets free of charge upon request.


Neither Bowen nor anyone at the modest 250-member church expected what happened: More than 6 million bracelets have been requested from throughout the United States and around the world.


One thing he quickly learned: “Beginning writers tend to fluff things out and over-embellish, use too many adverbs and adjectives.”
Bowen’s book is full of true stories. But those came naturally, because he uses stories in his preaching.


“I was constantly scribbling on pieces of paper,” he said. “Wherever I was. At dinner I would remember a story or something and would scribble on a piece of paper. I was at a seminar and got inspired and left the seminar to write.”


The book takes the reader through various stages of remedy for the complaint malady and includes testimonies from people who took on the 21-day challenge.


Not everyone buys the no-complaint approach. Among the criticisms Bowen has heard is that he advocates holding things in when it may be healthier to vent or that he doesn’t allow for addressing wrongs.


Instead of holding things in, he suggests taking an issue to the person with a statement of facts. For example: “This soup is cold.” That’s different from complaining, “How dare you bring me cold soup.”


“Don’t just sit there and get an ulcer,” Bowen said.

[reinvented]

in bagkok, you are joking arent you?
life wouldnt be bearable if i couldnt vent at the halfwits

[dirtydog]

^And the Thais aswell







ahh, you weren't refering to teachers then......