Can you go 30 Days Without Complaint?
Want to change your attitude? Have more peace? Experience more joy in your life? Take the 30 Days without Complaint challenge with me!
I started taking this challenge in 2014. After considering what constitutes complaining, I decided that I wanted to eliminate all of it from my attitude, truly find contentment no matter my circumstance.
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The dictionary definition of complain reads, “to say or write that you are unhappy, sick, uncomfortable, etc., or that you do not like something: to say something that expresses annoyance or unhappiness.”
How would your life change if you went #30DaysWithoutComplaint ? How would your heart soften? Click To Tweet
I was overwhelmed to think about going without uttering a single complaint for 30 days.
I am pretty sure I am going to fail everyday. So why bother trying to go without complaint?
Because I want to change my attitude to reflect joy.
First, I started by paying attention to my complaining. Well, that was a wake up call. If you had asked me the week before I began this challenge if I complain a lot, I would have said no.
But listening to myself this week, hearing myself mutter under my breath about the husband who dirties every dish, or my sinus headache, or the yucky film on the counter, or the tone and attitude of my four-year-old, I complain much more than I had believed.
It stops today.
Today, I pledge that I am not going to complain for 1 month. Tomorrow, I am going wake up with every word that comes out of my mouth focused on being positive or quiet. I might be quiet a lot.
Pledging to quit complaining for 30 days. I may fail daily, but learn even more. Click To Tweet
God must have a sense of humor. Not five minutes after I decided to take this challenge, I walked into my daughter’s room to find that an F5 tornado had apparently struck. I was racing to work on a photo shoot for work before the sunlight changed. But rather than complain, I carefully crafted every word.
“It looks like you need some help cleaning up. You must have been having fun.”
We cleaned it up quickly. Having a positive attitude even kept a few near meltdowns from happening.
Then, she cooperated getting dressed up, having her hair curled and styled. She was just the perfect little model on my photo shoot for work.
What started the #30dayswithoutcomplaint challenge?
Other years, I did the days of Thankfulness challenge on Facebook. I posted something new I was grateful for every day in November. My social media was full of gratefulness, but I didn’t see much change in my daily attitude or behavior.
I want my heart full of thankfulness, not just my newsfeed.
Philippians 2:14-15 ESV “Do all things without grumbling or questioning, that you may be blameless and innocent, children of God without blemish in the midst of a crooked and twisted generation, among whom you shine as lights in the world,”
I want people to see Christ in me. God has been teaching me a lot this year about how I speak, softening my tone, being quiet, listening more, keeping anger out of my voice.
Tonight, I really noticed how rephrasing my words gives them a completely different tone. Instead of I’m too tired to give her a bath, I said, I would prefer to finish folding the laundry.
Do you have an internal monologue?
Most of my complaining was part of an under-my-breath running narration of my life. I noticed that my little one is picking up on all my grumbling.
It’s negative and hurtful, and was often critical of my husband in front of my daughter. If I wouldn’t dare actually say those things to him, I shouldn’t be saying them at all. And if I’m being honest, if I’m truly going to stop complaining, I’m going to have to stop the thoughts as well.
Never complaining ever again might be a stretch, but radical change in my speech, mind, and heart takes radical actions.
Radical obedience takes radical actions to produce radical change. #30DaysWithoutComplaint Click To TweetI am going to do my best to completely revamp my attitude over the next 30 days, to start a new habit of positivity.
So, If you find me speaking very slowly and deliberately, I haven’t had a stroke, just a rough day.
Speak slowly, speak intentionally so you can speak life into the lives of those around you. Click To TweetI’m trying to speak intentionally so that I do not complain. I am really looking forward to seeing how this transforms my life at home, with my daughter, my ministry.
I hope you’ll join me. #30DaysWithoutComplaint
Make sure to subscribe to our email list or join our Facebook group to get the real scoop on my progress throughout the month of the annual challenge and support for yourself.
What I Learned when I Stopped Complaining – 30 Days Without Complaint final
No Complaints – Year 2.
12 Comments
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Rebekah @ Surviving Toddlerhood
What a great challenge. I should do this too. The month of November I’m doing a challenge on Instagram to share a picture of something I am thankful for every day. It will be under #onemonthofthankfulness, maybe you can join us?
Jennifer
I may have to join instagram for that.
Traci@tracesoffaith
You’ve caused me to give thought to what actually constitutes complaining. I find the negative attitude to be very habit-forming when I fall into it. Loved your example of your attitude towards your daughter’s messy room helping to diffuse what could have been a meltdown moment. A good post!
Brittany Ritcher
This is so great! I love how you said that you don’t want to contribute to the negativity to the world, that’s so powerful. Giving up our complaints is SO TOUGH. Sometimes, I find it helpful to pretend I’m shining a flashlight on the complaint. The visual of shining soft, white light on the darkness helps my heart feel lighter and more at peace. Although I will say, shining a mental flashlight on a headache might make it worse – especially if you are sensitive to light! ha 😉
Thanks for a great post!
Best,
Brittany
Angie Overstreet
I agree, I would like to join the 30day with no complaining. I know it would make me a better person.
Stefanie @ Calledhis.com
Beautiful idea that scares me to death!!! I’m such a complainer. It’s a huge flaw of mine. And seeing that verse makes me WANT to complain. I need to prayerfully think about doing this or something similar, I really do. I hate complaining, but it’s an easy trap to fall into.
womenwithintention
I love the intentionality in this. Going without complaint is hard and I agree 100% about the thankful gratitude challenge. Each time I posted what I was thankful for, I did feel thankful for about 30 seconds or each time someone liked it, but it wasn’t deposited in my heart like I would have liked it to be. Wonderful idea!
Terri's ThoughtsTerri
Great post, it is so easy to complain and grumble, but we need to look for the positive in everything.
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Stephanie
What a wonderful idea. I am going to try this too! Thanks for sharing.
Julie
Love this post! I was just talking with a co-worker this morning about complaining. We were actually complaining about how much people complain and then realized what we were doing! We had to laugh at ourselves but both vowed to do better. I’ve written several posts about grumbling and complaining myself as it’s definitely something I have to be aware of every moment so that I don’t fall into it (I’m sometimes successful 🙂 ). Thank you for sharing!