No prize for first place in complaining contest

BY GANJIKI D WAYNE

SOMETIMES I THINK we’re all in one big competition. Trying to see who can complain the best. Who can articulate society’s problems most cleverly and clearly? And who can say it first? Who can best fuel the flames of frustration and get most people on the same whingeing-wagon?

Who can promote a complaint to get the admiration of our people—with praises that we’ve “hit the nail on the head”? We want people to adore our complaints and extend them till we’re singing a dirge together. Now there’s not a great deal of wrongs with complaining. It is a form of noise and perhaps when enough noise is made, action can be taken.

David Sode once said that it’s like we humans are built to complain. If all the problems we currently complain about were to be solved, we would then complain about how imperfect those solutions are! We just have to...it’s human nature!

Turn to the letters section of any daily newspaper and see how many people are complaining (among them my proposed solutions). Now with technology and the internet it’s very easy to get a better glimpse of the degree of complaining going on.

I complain too. So I’m talking to myself as well. But I try to limit my significant complaints to matters that I am ABLE to do something about. Or to communicate them to people who can do something about them. And I try to include potential solutions in my complaints. 

I once read about a leadership guru who got so tired of his people complaining a lot to him that he set a rule. No one was allowed to bring a complaint to him unless they also brought along three possible solutions to that problem.

Immediately the number of people complaining in his organisation decreased greatly; and the problem-solvers rose up. This is because it takes less wit to identify a problem than it takes to identify a solution. I think one solution is worth ten complaints when it comes to using our mind power (an unscientific assessment of course). 

The problem is people want to say things...but they don’t want to think too much. So the solution to that problem is easy. Say things that don’t require much thinking; ergo...complain! Problem solved! We said much without having to think much!

Are you a complainer or a problem-solver? You don’t have to think about solving the world’s problems. But you can think about solutions to problems in your immediate sphere of influence.

Think about those little problems that you can impact. Then think harder about the solutions to those problems. I’m quite confident that you’ll become more influential as you continue to work within that sphere—solving those problems that you can solve. Eventually that sphere will get larger. Complaining and worrying won’t extend your borders.

As my Good Friend says, “Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?”  Yes, that’s my Good Friend Jesus.

Happy problem-solving!

Comments

[Icarus]

I can relate.

Paul - about the other 95%:

'When you're surrounded by fools the simplest suggestion seems like a stoke of genius'.

[Paul Oates]

Measuring Human Nature

Ganjiki raises an interesting point. How do you measure human nature?

What exactly is a cubit? It has been translated as an inch but is that now 2.5 centimetres?

The old Egyptian measurement was 4 cubits (fingers) equals 1 palm (when placed across one’s palm) and 7 palms equals one elbow (or ‘el’ as the Vikings used to say). Yet that’s pretty ‘flexible’ when you compare the various sizes people come in.

Perhaps the old measurement of one foot length is better yet again, the vagaries of human sizes may not produce exactness.

The Roman Army used to erect a mile stone every 1,000 paces (mille) as the cohorts of legions marched along the road, so exact was their paces.

The contention by Tom Hanks in the film, ‘Saving Private Ryan’ was that complaints (or gripes as the US troops called them), only went one way (upwards).

Perhaps the real problem is that it’s far easier to complain than to get off your back side and actually do something about a problem.

It seems a common problem that permeates most human societies that 95 % of the people will complain and say “I’m bored” and the other 5% volunteer to do all the unpaid work and never get bored doing it.