Ryan Miller’s Reviews > The No Complaining Rule: Positive Ways to Deal with Negativity at Work > Status Update

1) Trust in a bigger plan

2) Find strength in adversity

3) Failure today leads to success tomorrow

4) The worst event in life is often a catalyst for the best

5) Positive or negative - the choice is yours

5 Things to Do Instead of Complaining:

1) Practice Gratitude - 2 thoughts can't occupy your mind at once so you can't be negative while counting blessings
2) Praise Others - focus on what others are doing right - 3x as much praise as criticism
3) Focus on Success - write down 1 great thing about your day each night
4) Let Go - focus only on things you can change
5) Pray & Meditate

The No Complaining Rule:

Employees are not allowed to mindlessly complain to their coworkers. If they have a problem or complaint about the job, their company, their customer, or anything else, they are encouraged to bring the issue to their manager or someone who is in a position to address the complaint. However, the employees must share 1 or 2 possible solutions to their complaint as well."

POSITIVE PRINCIPLES:
* Positive leadership required to build positive culture - it can trickle up & sideways, but it flows from the top down

* Root vs fruit - a lot of companies focus on fruit as signs of success - people deliver the positive numbers, so they should be the focus to get the numbers you want

* Truth must permeate the Org - "Can I trust you and do you care about me?"

No one goes through life untested - every great historical figure, sports hero, etc. had to overcome adversity and challenges to define themselves - overnight success is a myth

staying + is not about a fake smile or believing you have to do it all yourself - rather it's about being optimistic, living w/ hope, and having faith - how you respond to the challenges is what matters

When building a positive culture, you have to let some energy vampires off the bus b/c one person can break a team

However, no matter how many negative employees you let go, there will always be new ones to take their place so have to come up w/ a better way to attack negativity before it attacks you (being proactive vs reactive)

from Fundamentals of Prosperity by Roger Babson:

Prez of Argentina explains why S. America lags behind N. America in prosperity & progress - "I have come to this conclusion, S America was discovered by the Spaniards in search of gold but N America was settled by the Pilgrims in search of God."

What are we focusing on / pursuing?

2 Steps to Quit complaining:
1) a No Complaining Day (a fast)

2) when you do complain, use it to your advantage as a signal that we are on the negative road - every complaint has an opposite - use it as a catalyst to help determine / focus on what we DO want and DO like

We were born to complain - as babies, we cry to get what we want- complaining is adult crying --> just as we learned to stop sucking our thumbs or afraid of dark, we must outgrow the habit of complaining

"Don't complain. 80% of people you complain to don't care & 20% are glad you have problems." - Lou Holtz

Complaining creates a cycle of negativity that feeds on itself & grows

In life, you have a choice between 2 roads: the positive road (enhance happiness, health, & success) or the negative road (misery, anger, failure)

Your bus can only be on one road at a time! You must decide which road to be on