I am currently in the middle of a fascinating new book (How the Way We Talk Can Change the Way We Work) that has raised an intriguing question about competing commitments. Without going into a lot of detail that is beyond the scope of this posting one of my biggest takeaways is that complaints rooted in frustration, disappointment and anger at a situation area wonderful gateways into discovering something that is at the root of putting my ideals in motion - specifically, a commitment to something that is often entirely out of my awareness. I will only complain about something because I am committed to the value or importance of something else.
What's interesting about this is that the language of complaint is, from an energetic and possibility standpoint, so fundamentally different than the language of commitment. The power here is in realizing that language creates reality; that culture lives in language; and that culture will "eat strategy for breakfast" (in the words of Peter Drucker).
We can rail and complain all we want about the unfortunate and unfair vicissitudes of life. Many will stay stuck here. An alternative is to learn to recognize and leverage the power inherent in our disappointments when we see them as window into what we truly are committed to having, doing or being in life.
