Be the Person Who Actually Does Something

I was demonstrating how to do gel printing to a group in my studio, and this was one of the pieces of paper I created. The paper is deli paper, you know the kind the meat market or butcher uses to wrap your cold cuts…yes, THAT paper. It’s flimsy, transparent when wet, and delicate. It words really well when paired with other kinds of papers or to build layers. Deli paper can be hard to work with and dries very fast, all of which are complaints that need to be managed.

Managing our complaints, interesting that we face it on so many levels. Complaints about people, tasks, relationships, circumstances, and in this case characteristics of paper. Complaints bombard us and tend to bunch up, so some days it feels like everything going wrong or that needs to be managed piles together to complicate anything. And there are people who complain about every little thing, nothing is any good and talking about it (over and over and over and over again) does not make it any better. There is always something to complain about, does that make it okay to be a complainer?

There are times when we need to let it out, vent, explore our grievances in such a way they we are able to get them off our chest. We all need that AND we need someone to listen while we do it. That poor someone who gets to hear it all and just listen. We don’t need them to fix it, appraise it, advise us or scold us to get a life, we simply need them to hear and then allow us to let it all go! Once we’re done complaining it is time to do something about it all. That could mean making a change, letting things go, removing ourselves from the situation OR facing and making the choice to act. We may feel like a victim and yet that is only true if we allow ourselves to be that victim. We always have a choice, it may not be the choice we want, yet it is still a choice.

Feel free to complain, feel free to vent. Feel free get it all off your chest…then get moving, DO something about it instead of letting it all do something to you. We are participants in our life not victims, not unless we choose to be. We all have horrible things happen to us, yet it is how we react that determines the impact those horrors are able to impart in our lives. Be the person who actually does something instead of being the one that only complains.