Imagine someone bitching and moaning about not having a good WiFi connection on one end of the world while there’s a little girl being sold into sexual slavery on the other. Yeah, spending too much time and energy on complaining can be compared in such a way. Drastic, right? Well, it’s imperative that we all quit our collective bitchin’.

If you’re reading this, my assumption is that you have some sort of access to the technology and luxury afforded to the members of the so-called First World. Someone walking for miles just to get clean water probably has about as much use for the Internet as a caveman would an iPhone.

I want to challenge you to improve the way you think and what you allow to come out of your mouth. As the saying goes, misery loves company and a complaining _____ is a happy _____ (fill in those blanks as you see fit). However, I would posit that all the griping runs contrary to the cognitive process of someone making mental moves to better their present situation.

I remember working the graveyard shift with a police dispatcher whose verbal currency was to voice one gripe after the other. His main complaint was that he couldn’t seem to advance in his career. Having heard enough over several nights, I went off on his ass in a way that forced him to think. One of the things I suggested is that he take evening college classes and complete his homework assignments while working the dispatch station. As he would fire off another grievance, I would come up with a possible solution to it. Finally, because I wasn’t going to enable or encourage his childish rant, he shut his fool mouth.

You see, all that negative speech is for people with too much time on their hands, in my opinion. And, not to say that the abject poor don’t ever bemoan their condition, but how DARE we, whose bitchin’ has to do with something for which we can readily find or create a solution, complain? We can drink clean water, select leftovers from an overstuffed refrigerator, plop down and watch over a thousand channels of bullshit on television in an air-conditioned space, and we STILL wanna gripe? As with the dispatcher, I suggest we all sip from a huge, overflowing cup of STFU.

Each day you rise is another opportunity you have to change your situation. The slips that point out shortcomings in your Complaints Department serve a purpose: they identify what improvements and overhauls need to be made. Here are a few suggestions:

– It all starts and ends with you. What you entertain is what you allow. What you speak is what you will have. Keep that in mind.

– You are a sum of the people you associate with most. If all they do is gripe, you can best believe you’re probably imbibing the broth of bitch-assedness, yourself. Alter that circle of friends or get out of it, altogether.

– The first thought going through your head each morning should not be the things you don’t have. Be grateful for what you do have and what is readily available. This is the thought process and a tool of change.

– As my mother used to say (although she doesn’t curse and is nowhere near as harsh), “If you don’t have anything good to say, then shut your punk-ass up!”

– Learn to reroute that negative energy into something positive. Take notes and keep a journal of the shortcomings. Come up with three possible ways these can be addressed. Will it take some sort of specialized training to overcome these? Are materials or services available that address the concern? Understand the actions or inactions that led you down your present path so you don’t return.

– Lastly, realize that anybody can find a reason to complain. However, what you release from your lips has the potential to propel you forward, keep you stagnant, or hold you back. Choose your words wisely.