Stop complaining and start making a difference

If you can change things, then do

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Before Breakfast, a production of iHeartRadio. Good Morning.
This is Laura. Welcome to the Before Breakfast podcast. Today's
tip is that if something bothers you see if you
can take some of the time and energy you might
spend complaining about it and try to change it. Maybe

(00:27):
you can't change it. We talked earlier this week of
the list of annoying tasks that still must be dealt with,
but maybe you can't change it. Because I study how
people use their time, I love hearing about how people
get into the activities that they spend their time on. Recently,
I heard about how an active volunteer got involved in

(00:49):
the organization she serves. She had realized she was frustrated
about all the problems in her community, but she just
talked about them without looking for sols. So, as she
put it, she decided it was time in her life
to stop complaining and start making a difference. She became

(01:10):
an active volunteer for a nonprofit that meets various needs
in her city. She hasn't solved all her city's problems,
of course, but she's made a difference in many ways
that she can see, which helps her feel better about
her community. In general, I love that in many cases

(01:30):
there are things we can actively do to solve problems.
Should your community do a better job about picking up
trash in public spaces? Sure? Can you also organize a
small group to come in with trash bags and make
things look better? Oh? Perhaps you could. At work, you
might be able to make a difference in all sorts
of ways. For instance, if it bothers you that your

(01:54):
workplace does not do much to mark new babies, marriages, retirements, days,
new hires, departures, and so forth, you could organize a
team of people who do just that. If it irks
you that your team doesn't share agendas, you could offer
to draft them. You can offer to be a timekeeper

(02:16):
for meetings at home. You can obviously make a difference too.
Do you wish dinner conversations were more exciting? Think in
advance about a few topics currently on your family member's
minds and figure out questions to invite conversation about them.
Or buy a box of table topics cards so you

(02:36):
can take turns drawing a card with a question to
spark conversation. We can even decide to stop complaining and
do something about aspects of our health. Again, not all
problems are solvable, or maybe even most of them, but
some might be. When I got fed up enough about
my chronic sore throats a few years ago, I did

(02:59):
some research and figure out what might be causing them.
I did some experimentation, and I'm happy to report their
less frequent Now. If you're having trouble sleeping, you could
try all the good sleep hygiene ideas and take notes
on any changes. If that doesn't work, you can see
a sleep specialist and see what you can come up with.

(03:20):
Complaining takes energy, and probably the people around you are
going to get tired of hearing it. Eventually. You may
as well use some of that time and energy to
seek out solutions. Again, not everything that we might complain
about has an obvious solution, or at least not one
that we in particular can put into practice. I Am

(03:42):
not going to be able to change the format of
various tax paperwork or anything like that. But sometimes there
is a solution within our grasp. If so, making a
difference might just be possible, and then you can reap
the rewards for a while to come. In the meantime,

(04:02):
this is Laura. Thanks for listening and here's to making
the most of our time. Thanks for listening to Before Breakfast.
If you've got questions, ideas, or feedback, you can reach
me at Laura at Laura vandercam dot com. Before Breakfast

(04:32):
is a production of iHeartMedia. For more podcasts from iHeartMedia,
please visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you
listen to your favorite shows.