{"id":3913,"date":"2013-10-15T01:00:07","date_gmt":"2013-10-15T05:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.allandouglas.com\/blog\/?p=3913"},"modified":"2025-04-21T01:56:40","modified_gmt":"2025-04-21T05:56:40","slug":"thou-shalt-not-whine-the-eleventh-commandment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/thou-shalt-not-whine-the-eleventh-commandment\/","title":{"rendered":"Thou Shalt Not Whine: The Eleventh Commandment?"},"content":{"rendered":"

If God had inscribed an 11th<\/sup> commandment, it might well have been, \u201cThou shalt not whine.<\/em><\/strong>“<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Two Kinds of People<\/h2>\n

\"happy<\/p>\n

Motivational author Keith Cameron Smith says that there are two kinds of people: winners and whiners and they are easy to tell apart: winners brighten a room when they enter it, whiners brighten a room when they leave it.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re not sure which you are look at your friends, for birds of a feather do flock together.\u00a0 Which kind of people do you surround yourself with: winners take responsibility for their actions and their lives.\u00a0 Whiners play the victim, blaming their troubles on everyone but themselves.\u00a0 Winners seek out ways to accomplish the things they set out to do, whiners seek out excuses for why they fail.\u00a0 Winners tend to energize one another, share their successes, congratulate others, and find the good in all things and praise it. Whiners discourage others, gossip, wallow in self pity, and find something to complain about all things.\u00a0 Have you ever noticed how groups of whiners actually have competitions to see whose life is the worst?<\/p>\n

Self pity is the largest part of the dark cloud that leaves a room when a whiner walks out of it.\u00a0 Self pity is much like a pig that wallows in its own bodily wastes.\u00a0 The more it engages in this behavior the worse it smells, and the more objectionable it is to those who don\u2019t.\u00a0 A group of pigs can tolerate each other because they all stink and have become accustomed to the smell.<\/p>\n

Generally speaking, winners will avoid hanging out with whiners and vice versa.\u00a0 Winners do occasionally spend time with whiners when trying to help them clean themselves up.\u00a0 Jesus (the ultimate winner) took time to be with whiners to influence them for the good.<\/p>\n

It’s Your Choice<\/h2>\n

Being a winner or a whiner is a choice.\u00a0 If you choose to be a winner, it demands that you focus on the positive, learning to appreciate, encourage, and find the good in yourself and others.\u00a0 Whiners tend to be very negative and become unconscious of just how much they whine.<\/p>\n

The Challenge<\/h2>\n

\"book<\/a><\/p>\n

In The Top 10 Distinctions Between Winners and Whiners<\/em>, Keith Cameron Smith offers a seven day challenge.\u00a0 Try going seven whole days without complaining.\u00a0 Not so hard?\u00a0 Try it!\u00a0 Here\u2019s how it works: honestly evaluate your statements each day for negativity, complaining, gossip, and nastiness.\u00a0 Only you know the score, so if you cheat you are only cheating yourself (proving you are a whiner).\u00a0 If you go 3 days without complaining about any one or anything, then complain on the fourth day, you must start over at day one.\u00a0 When you can go seven whole days without a single negative comment, you will have become very aware of the power of your words, and of how negative you used to be.\u00a0 You will also notice the winners and the whiners in your life on a deeper level.<\/p>\n

In researching this concept a bit more I found an issue I will include that Mr. Smith did not \u2013 perhaps he felt it was self-evident.\u00a0 That is that we need not feel defeated or start the challenge over on account of negative thoughts<\/em><\/strong>.\u00a0 At least not at first.\u00a0 Our thought processes are, by and large, beyond our immediate control.\u00a0 We are to hold ourselves accountable only for those thoughts that spill out through our lips to influence others.<\/p>\n

In time, as we learn to embrace the positive and deny the negative, our thoughts will follow our speech and we will begin to become truly positive people. As for me, I choose to give up snarkiness.\u00a0 I choose to be a winner and help light the way for those who would follow.\u00a0 Will you try too?<\/p>\n

If you are already a winner, you may disregard this message and accept my heartfelt congratulations.<\/p>\n

A Litmus Test for Negativity<\/h2>\n

Perhaps you are thinking, \u201cThis is all well and good, but how is this done?\u201d\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you asked!\u00a0 A while back\u00a0my friend\u00a0Dr. Calvin Metcalf covered this topic and he offered an excellent three point test for negativity in the remarks we might make:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Is it true?<\/li>\n
  2. Is it kind?<\/li>\n
  3. Is it necessary?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Let\u2019s take a common conversation as an example, gasoline prices.\u00a0 You are with a group of friends who are talking about the increasing cost of fuel and its effect on everything they buy and the economy in general.\u00a0 It would be a \u201cnatural\u201d thing to join in and moan about how the greediness of the oil companies has impacted your life.<\/p>\n

    1) Is this true?\u00a0 Yes, it is true that the prices have gone up and an impact is being felt, but it is entirely the fault of the oil companies?\u00a0 Are you an economist, do you know this as a verified fact or are you parroting opinions you\u2019ve often heard from others and randomly placing blame?<\/p>\n

    2) Is it Kind?\u00a0 No, definitely not.<\/p>\n

    3) Is it necessary? \u00a0No, griping about it to your friends is not going to solve anything, so what\u2019s the point?\u00a0 If you want to gripe, gripe to your congressman.<\/p>\n

    By using this simple, three point test to assess our conversations we can learn to avoid negativity in our conversation and steer ourselves toward a more positive, and happier, existence.\u00a0 My old saying for this week: \u201cFind the good and praise it.\u201d\u00a0 Instead of letting negativity consume you, actively look for good, positive things in your surrounding and be glad of them.\u00a0 Share you findings with others.\u00a0 Yes; they\u2019ll think you\u2019ve gone nuts, but won\u2019t it be more fun than being just another old sour-puss?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    If God had inscribed an 11th commandment, it might well have been, “Thou shalt not whine.“ Two Kinds of People Motivational author Keith Cameron Smith says that there are two kinds of people: winners and whiners and they are easy to tell apart: winners brighten a room when they enter it, whiners brighten a room … Continue reading “Thou Shalt Not Whine: The Eleventh Commandment?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23,7],"tags":[38],"class_list":["post-3913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-educational","category-life","tag-communication"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3913"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21523,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3913\/revisions\/21523"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pineymountainfoster.org\/thoughts\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}