The Best Fast For Your Mindset: The Complaining Fast

Yes, I just started this and it might be the best thing you will do this week.

Image: CNN

What do you think about when you hear the word "fasting?"

Usually what pops into our mind is intermittent fasting, water fasting and just taking a break from food for an extended period of time.
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While the benefits of these types of fasts are wonderful for our mindset and overall health, there is one fast that might take the cake in terms of benefits to our mindset.

If we extend the definition of "fasting," that we have set in place, to include anything and everything that we could abstain from for an extended period of time, we can include complaining as a type of fasting.

And that is exactly what we are going to do.

Time to learn why committing to a fast of this powerfully bad habit might be best thing you'll focus on this week.

Why Do We Complain?

It's just so easy.

Don't lie, we all complain and for a lot of us it takes over our days, it impedes on the actions we take on a day to day basis and eventually it will hinder results in anything you are trying to accomplish.

Complaining is essentially the path of least resistance in our lives because it helps us to avoid taking the actions that will help solve our problems.

I never said the path of least resistance was in any way a good thing, it is just as it states, the path with the least amount of obstacles.

Our brains naturally gravitate towards doing what is easy and what requires less work. We have to train them to do the "hard stuff," until we do that we are naturally going to be gravitating towards the easy things and getting nothing done.

I am sure you already experience this, wanting to watch Netflix instead of studying and wanting to almost anything other than go to work today.

Complaining helps us to avoid the action, and avoid the obstacles when in reality that is what we should be chasing if we want to start having a fulfilling life.

Contrary to popular belief, it is not "motivation" that you need, instead try a little mental discipline to start getting more done.

Complaining Is Wreaking Havoc On Our Lives

It's almost as bad as having a health problem and potentially worse.

"How does it impede on our action and hinder results? We are just complaining..."

True, but what we think and say have a direct correlation to our actions.

If we are thinking negatively and complaining about the problem, there is no way that we are going to take action to solve that problem anytime in the near future.

We are going to push it off until it either really needs to get done or you forget about it, I'm sure you can relate.

This just pushes us further and further away from our goals as this lack of action starts to add up day after day.

We are essentially complaining our way out of achieving our goals and until we get it under control we are not going to find the "success" we are looking for.

The Complaining Fast

Let's get you started...

Start with a day, then carry the momentum to the handful of days after that.

Pick a period of time to start, that you know you can push through the temptations to complain so that you can start to see the results of eliminating this from your life.

Try a three day complaining fast to start, the first day is going to be easy because it is at the top of your mind and it is something new and challenging.

It is those next couple of days that are going to be challenging. You are going to be so tempted to complain that you might just fall for the temptation. Don't worry if you "break the fast," just start over then and there, at day one.

Three days is long enough to challenge yourself but not too long that you are not going to take action.

You have to find the balance that is long enough to challenge yourself but not too long to scare you away right away, even though eventually your goal will likely be to totally eliminate complaining after you see how it impacts your life.

And how your life will change when you stop complaining...

This is something that you are not just going to be able to feel, but other people are going to notice as well.

Do you know what that means? It means that people are going to be more attracted to you and more inclined to be around you if you are more positive and complaining less.

Why? For the simple fact that you are not going to be bringing down the energy anymore from complaining and you are going to be more enjoyable to be around, leading to all sorts of opportunities in personal and professional relationships.

That's not the only thing though, when you stop your complaining, you force yourself to look at and actually take action on the things you have been pushing off or just any problems that are in your life.

Maybe you just had a lot to get done in order to get your finances in line, now you can do that.

Or maybe you have been pushing off doing any "meaningful work" in your life because you have just complained about picking up extra work, now you can start that.

We all have those things that we keep pushing of until "later" and eventually "later" turns into never getting done.

​Time to change that equation and start to gain real momentum in your life by taking off this negative lens that a lot of us are seeing the world through. It all starts with reducing our complaining.

What do you say, time for a fast?

As per usual, another day on the blog is in the books! Thanks for all the support and if you enjoyed this or learned anything I just ask one thing: bring a friend back tomorrow! Time to make personal development more "normal" because it is at the foundation of every area of our lives. Stop back with a friend tomorrow-- yourmmntm.com/blog

-Taylor

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