A Complaint Free World: How to Stop Complaining and Start Enjoying the Life You Always Wanted (Hardcover)

by Will Bowen (Author)
Key Phrases: complaint free, conscious competence, unconscious incompetence, United States, The Universe (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
Bowen is a minister with a very simple message: quit complaining. If you do, you'll be happier and healthier. Hence his Complaint-Free World challenge; the goal is to stop for 21 consecutive days. Why 21? That's how long it takes to break a habit, according to Bowen, who has appeared on Oprah and The Today Show discussing his challenge. And while there's no scientific proof his program works, he includes testimonials from people who've stopped their chronic carping and now lead more positive lives. As for issues that might make you complain about not complaining-e.g., how do you enact social change without first finding fault with the present situation?-Bowen points to Martin Luther King Jr. and his I-have-a-dream speech. He "did not stand on the steps of the Lincoln memorial and say, "Isn't it terrible how we're being treated...." Not to be critical ("Criticism is complaining with a sharp edge") but how could Bowen forget King's great rousing line that day: "America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check which has come back marked 'insufficient funds.' " (Oct. 16)
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Review
“A Complaint Free World is an engaging, enjoyable, easy-to-read reminder that the only permanent, constructive changes you can make in the world are the changes that you make in yourself.”
—Gary Zukav, author of The Seat of the Soul and Soul to Soul 



From the Hardcover edition. --This text refers to the Kindle Edition edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 192 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday Religion (October 16, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385524587
• ISBN-13: 978-0385524582
• Product Dimensions: 7.7 x 5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #11,742 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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  #33 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Self-Help > Spiritual
  #83 in	Books > Health, Mind & Body > Psychology & Counseling > Applied Psychology

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 38 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Assigned Reading, Very Worthwhile, November 20, 2007

By	Robert D. Steele (Oakton, VA United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Edit of 28 May 08 to correct typo pointed out by a reader, and to add links.

My wife asked me to buy this book after hearing about it. I did, it is a worthy useful book, and I will take its challenge.

The author does a tremendous job of gently pointing out all the things about complaining that are both negative and futile:

+ complaining is about what you cannot have or get--get over it
+ avoid chronic complainers, the disease spreads
+ Takes 4-8 months to move from unconsciously incompetent to unconsciously competent.
+ Complaining traps you in a constante state of "something is wrong."
+ Complaining is a form of manipulation
+ Instead of complaining seek alternative language or BE SILENT
+ Silence is mature self-possession
+ Commit to what you want and go after it--WITHOUT COMPLAINT when stymied

The book is quite effective at an underlying theme, God will provide. In acceptance lies happenstance, coincidence (or not), and harmony. The church that started this movement has given out 125,000 free purple bracelets, and issues Certificates of Happiness when anyone can attest to going 21 days without a complaint. They are starting up spin-off programs such as a Complaint-Free Relationship, School, or Workplace.

The author touches briefly on the strategic game of nations, pointing out that instead of negotiating the negative (like nuclear proliferation) why not spend more time sharing information and strategizing the positive, like the end of poverty and disease? Amen.

The book concludes with a raft of first person accounts, roughly one per page, and they are all serious and meaningful, not at all trite of hokey. This is a serious book for serious people.

Entirely and absolutely by coincidence (or not--I really am starting to come back to God "in community"), reading this book coincided with my reading of one squishy and one leadership book, and all three of them center on the same point: be open, be accepting, visualize the good.

I am so taken with this book that I am adding it to my CEO List (Collective and Commercial Intelligence). I find it hard to imagine a CEO of a Fortune 500 company that could get through a day without complaining, but boy, would I like to be around someone like that, who can drive a Fortune 500 company without ever complaining. Now *that* is leadership.

The other two books:
The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success: A Pocketbook Guide to Fulfilling Your Dreams (One Hour of Wisdom)
The Source of Leadership: Eight Drivers of the High-impact Leader

The more I think about, the more I am impressed by this book out of Kansas City, Missouri. This book is the essence of what is good and great about America as a frontier Nation, enduring challenges, never mind the occasional genocide, slave trade, and unprovoked war. The heart of this country is still good, even if the corrupt politicians have lost their soul. We can change all that in this next election, and I am going to stop complaining and start working to elect someone who represents the young, the good, and the future.

Bless all those who brought us this treasure, this gift of calm.

Other great books along these lines:
The Complete Conversations with God (Boxed Set)
The Tao of Democracy: Using Co-Intelligence to Create a World That Works for All
Left Hand of God, The: Healing America's Political and Spiritual Crisis
All Rise: Somebodies, Nobodies, and the Politics of Dignity (BK Currents)
The Faiths of the Founding Fathers
Society's Breakthrough!: Releasing Essential Wisdom and Virtue in All the People
The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom
Collective Intelligence: Creating a Prosperous World at Peace

19 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very few books are this Transformational , January 18, 2008

By	Todd Sullivan "The Esteem of the World Isn't ... (Mount Vernon, WA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I just finished reading A Complaint Free World and I must say that I was floored with this guide on becoming a complaint free person. As a Christian I believed that i was a very positive person but after taking on this challenge I found out that contrary to what I believed, I complain quite often and i wonder if I will ever make it to 21 days, but I will continue to go forward and strive towards that goal.
This book is maybe one of the 5 best books I have ever read and I believe that this concept can change the world, because I believe that all of us are complainers and that complaining really doesn't do anyone any good.
As well as being a guide to a system that I believe could end complaining in our lives, this book also describes complaining, how it effects us and what it does to others.
This book is an absolute must to read and to practice, heres to a better world.

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An irresistible meme, January 2, 2008

By	Harriet M Welsch (Northern California, USA) - See all my reviews

This book provides a practical program for increasing happiness and satisfaction by becoming aware of one's unconscious complaints against life, then consciously giving up short-term griping and gloating in favor of long-term gratitude. It's a non-denominational approach that starts working when you merely hear about the idea!

If you think about complaining to others being like second-hand cigarette smoke, you can see how complaining poisons the common breathing space. The goal is to go 21 days without complaining, and when you catch yourself complaining, you switch an inexpensive plastic bracelet to the opposite wrist. When you don't have to switch the bracelet for 21 consecutive days, you've met the challenge.

The book is easy to read, encouraging, and addresses most of the objections our silly, fearful minds are so quick to raise. For me it is a support to the Buddhist value of "Right Speech." My husband and I have not yet received the purple reminder bracelets, but we joke about switching our imaginary bracelets to the other wrist whenever we catch ourselves complaining. It's a program worth trying.