Wednesday, July 3, 2019

It's Time to Complain



Conscious complaining.

This isn't a term that I was familiar with until I found it in Pamela McLean's new book, "Self as Coach, Self as Leader: Developing the Best in You to Develop the Best in Others."

In the book, she relates how a colleague urged her to do some conscious complaining after McLean was feeling greatly challenged while recovering from a fractured spine.

"For three months, all of my routines had come to an abrupt stop in order to accommodate complete recovery," she writes. "The whole scenario required a dramatically slowed pace."

The colleague suggested it was time that McLean voice her frustrations, so she did. Complaints ranged from only being able to sleep on her back to not being able to drive to not being able to exercise.

"The list was much longer than I realized and I was surprised by how much better I felt when I acknowledged my list of feelings in the form of small complaints," she writes.

Sometimes at work we're supposed to always have a gung-ho attitude, full of energy and enthusiasm. But, honestly, the broken coffee pot, the squeaky office chair of a colleague and the fact that you have to wear a tie to work every day is just wearing you down.

So, get together with a trusted friend or family member and have at it. Whether you want to call it conscious complaining or a good old-fashioned bitch session, get it all out. Like McLean, you may find you feel a whole lot better.


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