People seem to whinge a lot. There's so much hardship and suffering in the world, and yet we westerners seem so preoccupied with our own problems that it just leads to unhappiness and failure in life.
As I write this, I'm on a train leaving Oswiecim, Poland, the sites of the Auschwitz and Birkenau concentration camps from the second world war. In less than 6 years, millions of people were tortured and murdered. Going to these places puts your life in perspective. Nothing in your life will ever equal the evil that went on there. I recommend everyone to visit a concentration camp at some point in their lives. In some European countries, it's mandatory for school children to visit a concentration camp with their school.
But despite our national promises never to let this happen at the end of the second world war, massacres still occur on a regular basis around the world. We live very sheltered and very privileged lives in comparison. In the UK, our poorest people are rich beyond the wildest dreams of the average person in third world countries.
And despite all this, we seem to be able to moan about the slightest problem. Somebody hasn't made things infinitely easy for us and that is some kind of disaster. It can ruin our whole day.
We completely forget about all of the good things in our lives. And all of the great things that enabled us to get to the point where this problem could occur. I bet the starving millions would give anything for their brand new family car to break down, or to not be getting a bonus this year at a highly paid job.
Try thinking about all of the things you have in your life that you should be grateful for. Your terrible job (that manages to easily pay for your rent AND your food with enough left over for some luxuries), your annoying family (who are still alive and mostly healthy), your awful schooling (that taught you to read, write and count, making you employable).
There is always somebody worse off than you, so there is always something in your life to be grateful for.
I'm not saying that your problems are irrelevant, or that you should ignore them. I'm just saying that there is more in your life to be grateful for, than you could ever think of. And you should be grateful for your problems. It is through problems that change and innovation comes from. More money is made through solving problems than anything else. Problems are a good thing, if you treat them right.
The Secret* devotes a large section to the power of gratitude. Before coming across The Secret*, I was a big proponent for being grateful, and for putting your problems into perspective. But The Secret has made it a much larger part of my life. There are a number of suggestions for being grateful. Such as thinking of 5 things every morning to be grateful for before getting out of bed. Or carrying something in your pocket that every time you touch it, you must think of something to be grateful for. This could be a small stone, or even your keys.
Nobody likes a whinger, even though most people are whingers themselves. It's as if they want to be the only one whinging about their problems. Subconsciously, we avoid others who are prolific whingers, and we avoid doing business with them. We do business with people who focus on solutions, not problems. We do business with people who talk about other people, rather than their own problems.
By talking about happy things, or even by talking about your own problems in a positive way, we make people like us more. Which means we get more of what we want, and fewer problems to whinge about.
And of course, it just makes us much happier if we aren't focussing all of our energy on the negative aspects of our lives.
Don't forget about, or ignore your problems. Just put them in perspective, deal with them, and stop boring everybody else with them. If you have a solution that you can give to (or sell to) others. Brilliant! People want to hear about that.
