Whenever people find themselves in a comfortable period in their lives it is rare that they are satisfied with it. Alternatively, the more comfortable people are, the more they seem to complain. This is likely a symptom of being bored and having nothing else to do, so you want you to express dissatisfaction with something. I used to be someone who would do this very frequently. I would constantly complain about the smallest inconveniences in my life. It took me a while to realize how much this would turn people away from wanting to listen to me. I can't blame them. Nobody likes someone who constantly complains. But it isn't simply the action of complaining that bothers people. While yes, it is a pretty solid rule of thumb, there are many exceptions. If something awful happens to someone that was completely out of their control then I don't think anyone has an issue with them discussing it. There are plenty of justifiable reasons to complain. But the problem is that most of the time we aren't justifiably complaining. We complain about trivial things, may of which are partially caused by us. This is the kind of complaining that bothers people. It is complaining when you don't deserve to.

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After doing some thinking about all the privileges that I have in my life, I'm coming to the realization that I barely have any valid complaints about my life. Sure, my life hasn't been perfect and I've had some terrible times, as we all have. But the reality is that there are millions, if not billions, of people who would kill to live the life that I have led. And this can be applied to the vast majority of people living in Western societies. I'll clarify right now that this of course does not apply to many people, i.e homeless, disabled, orphaned, etc. But the people that this does apply to, just so happen to be the people doing most of the complaining. The reality is that we have absolutely no right to. While it might sound cliché, it is absolutely necessary to constantly remind ourselves of the misery that exists across our planet. Millions of people are starving, millions are homeless, millions have known nothing other than devastation for their entire lives. When you remind yourself of these views, it becomes very difficult to complain about virtually anything. If we all could remind ourselves of all of the privileges we have in our lives a little more often, then we could save each other from having to pretend to care when someone complains.

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If you complain about car troubles, remember that you're lucky to have one in the first place. If you complain about your landlord, try and do it to someone begging for change on the street. If you complain about shitty tasting food, remind.... well, you get the point. A valid criticism of this outlook is that it will be incredibly depressing without actually accomplishing anything. If you're feeling peckish in the afternoon it isn't going to do anyone any good to think about starvation rather than go get lunch. But that's not the point. The point is to exercise a level of gratitude in your life beyond what you currently have. It will allow you to place a higher value on all of the elements of your life that you take for granted. It will allow you to look at tough times with a smile rather than a frown. Be the grateful person, not the complainer. Remind yourself frequently.