What Not To Do – A Lesson About Complaining

Ever find yourself complaining? 

I just got back from a fabulous trip to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico with my husband and our friends. What an amazing relaxing week. Puerto Vallarta is one of the most beautiful places in the world: mountains, beaches, rain forest, great food and friendly people.

Here’s where the lesson comes in: We started out with some challenges.

We had flight delays which caused us to miss flights and were told we wouldn’t make it til the next day. (Shortly after we ran from flight to flight.) Luckily, we persisted, kept calling and eventually both caught a flight.

We arrived in our room at 11pm, after leaving home at 8 am. It was a long exhausting day of miracles just getting there.
After waiting a long time to check in, we realized we had two full size beds instead of a king (where’s the romance in that?), no water in the room or coffee/tea and that’s just a few of our concerns.

Our friends had all those amenities plus were delivered flowers to their room, I could go on with more complaints, but I will save myself from repeating this mistake again. 🙂

[ctt_hbox link=”U5rM_” via=”no” ]Complaining will start a chain reaction of more things to complain about.[/ctt_hbox]

Something as small as complaining about something or someone consistently can turn into an avalanche of more reasons to complain. Like attracts like, right?

The manager called to apologize since there was no possibility of changing rooms and offered to give us breakfast on the house and 10% off our bill. Great! Sounds awesome! We’re in!

BUT…you’ll just need to listen to a 90 minute presentation. Yeah that’s right. They wanted to sell us a timeshare. Todd being a sales guy and a real estate lover, thought it would be fun to check it out and enjoy the benefits too.

Little did he know, we would be held hostage for 4 1/2 hours, (using our complaints as leverage) to escape the passing from sales person to sales person, who each asked why we weren’t interested, listened to our complaints, then slashed the price lower. “No” didn’t seem to mean no to them and after the 5th handoff we were exhausted and frustrated.

What most people don’t realize is that when something happens to you, if you continue telling the same story of how bad it was over and over, the same experience will happen again and again.
​​​​​​​
We know this and STILL DID IT!! Reliving our frustrations and complaints to each sales person just trying to escape.

You are a freaking magnet, my friend.

Keep complaining and you’ll get more things, experiences and people to help you keep up the vibration of complaining.

It might not be exactly the same situation, but I can guarantee you it’s the same feeling. The same disappointment or frustration.
More reasons to complain.
More stress.
More feeling like a victim. Trust me. #experienced

We’ve all done it at some point not even realizing that “telling the truth” was creating a vortex of negative energy.

​​​“Where focus goes, energy flows.”

I’m sure you’ve heard the saying before but it’s so true. The only way we cause stress or suffering is because of our focus.

How do you change your focus?? Change the questions you ask.

All day, every day, our brains are working out scenarios. Thinking about what happened, what could have happened, why something happened or what should’ve happened or what someone did. This can very well keep you in a negative frame of mind.

Example: “Why do we not have a king room since that’s what we booked? Why do they have water and we don’t? How come we didn’t get flowers? Can you believe the maid threw away my skincare samples? Why did we agree to come to this presentation? We wasted half the day we could’ve been at the beach. We should’ve said no. Why didn’t we say no?”

Changing the questions you ask, will change how you feel. ​​

Example: “I am choosing to let this go. What can I turn my attention to that feels better? How can I have more fun in this moment right now? How can I see things differently? What can I appreciate?​​​​​​​ What brings me joy? What’s my focus? What am I grateful for? 

Listen, we all make bad decisions, have regrets and wish it would’ve turned out differently. [ctt_hbox link=”wY5F8″ via=”no” ]We can’t go back and change those choices, but we can go forward and make better ones.​​​​​​​ [/ctt_hbox]

Todd and I noticed what was happening after the sales pitch debacle and decided to really create more focus on the magic of this place and all of the blessings at our fingertips. Hey, two beds meant he wasn’t waking me up snoring and tossing! It was like “I love Lucy” with our own beds. What a blessing in disguise. We had the most glorious view of the river, the ocean, mountains and rainforests, every morning while watching the sun rise from our balcony.

We decided to change our state by going on a day excursion called “Ultimate Adventure” where we did about 10 zip lines, one of which was a super man style and 3/4 of a mile long, a free fall simulator, hiking, roping climbing, tight rope, tree log running, pendulum free jump, propelling from the top of a tree, ATV trails through the rainforest and muddy water, as well as a water slide from the top of the mountain. What an incredible adventure and adrenalin rush! It is very easy to change your focus when you are having fun doing something else.

[ctt_hbox link=”Ybkfb” via=”no” ]Whatever you pay attention to, will always magnify.[/ctt_hbox]

There is always something positive if you are looking for it. Always.
Change the questions you ask yourself and expect everything to always work out. It always does anyway right?

Here’s to sleeping separately in Mexico! Olé!

If you liked this article please share it with your friends or on social media.

Don’t miss another post! Subscribe and receive my bi weekly Love Letter plus a free training called “7 Simple Steps to Create a Life You Love” right here.

Join the Art of You Community on Facebook and get Live Training plus content I just don’t share anywhere else.