Stop complaining

Think of any person. Imagine this person.
Does he or she not complain? Does he or she not criticize? Is he or she not wasting the present moment complaining about his or her condition?

Now think of someone who is not ordinary, someone you admire.
Someone who is very happy.
Imagine this person.
How do you picture him or her?
...
...
...

I know.
a person you feel something unshakeable when you meet them. As if their spirit is made of steel. They never complain. At no point do they regret the past. When you talk to them, their language is future-oriented. Their thoughts are clear. Their judgment is unbiased. They interpret events fairly. They have learned from life's setbacks.

Do you want to feel remarkable too? Not for others, but only for yourself, for your own self-esteem? According to Nietzsche, we all strive for this "will to power"; it's inscribed in our flesh and blood ¹. The first step to feeling powerful isn't to complain, but to accept your condition.

What if you no longer needed to feel "remarkable"?
What if you just wanted to live a "normal" life?
Then remember that not complaining means refusing to give your thoughts over to sadness. And that's already a big step, as you now know - remember the earlier writings on the discipline of desire. Just as you now know that a thing isn't inherently bad: it's your subjectivity that ascribes this bad character to it.

So I've just given you two reasons why you shouldn't complain:

Remarkable people don't complain.

Not complaining is good for you.

And here's a third reason:

It's your duty to put things in perspective and be fair to yourself and others:

It's true: while you're struggling with train cancellations, the high cost of living and the inability to get an appointment with your GP, others are enjoying petits fours with a glass of champagne at the Four Seasons.

And yet
I want to remind you:
your fate is certainly not as sad as that of the hundreds of thousands of migrants who die on the roads of hope every year, or the millions of children who, on leaving the doctor's surgery, understand that they'll have to live with this incurable disease from now until the day they die; the very death that knocked on the door of a work colleague who died suddenly of a heart attack after playing football with friends on a Saturday afternoon.

You know all this and are deliberately hiding it.
Just like I do.
Like the anonymous person sitting next to you. Just like everyone else.

You should let go of those thoughts that may make you feel guilty, but that is exactly what they are there for, to change your perception.

Consider yourself lucky that you already have what you enjoy. That you can breathe, that you can eat your fill, that you have the certainty of sleeping under a roof tonight.

You prefer to forget it and tell yourself that the things you enjoy are "normal"; they are practically your merit. But what you think is normal is a distant dream, unattainable for billions of people on earth. As you read this, one person ate boiled potatoes last night before sleeping on the floor in a sleeping bag with fifteen other people, with no privacy, no love, no plans, no future. Another buried his fallen partner whose body was riddled with bullets.

Put this into perspective.

The world can be a sad place, but you were born on the right side of things. In a rich country. Your parents gave you an education, you went to school. When you needed treatment, you naturally went to a doctor who was within walking distance - and you didn't even have to pay for it. And the best thing is: you can afford to have dreams.

Wish for a little less and be a little happier with what you already have.

Then, like a wise man sitting on top of a mountain, you'll rationally understand that in the eyes of many of your brothers and sisters on earth, complaining isn't only intellectually wrong, but also humanly wrong.

You may feel guilty {{username}}, but that is, after all, its function.

Above all, it's a message telling you that you have everything you need to be happy and content with what is; because most of the time, your worries are insignificant and usually short-lived.

Don't complain.