Stop Whining

The following is a paraphrasing of a version of a longer quotation from Theodore Roosevelt that appeared in Review of Reviews, January 1897.

Complaining about a problem without proposing a solution is called whining.

Next time, before you go to someone to express your dissatisfaction with something, make sure you have an alternative that you think is better. Albeit, this is harder for you: the burden is on you to come up with a better idea. Doing your homework and preparing for dissent makes your counter proposal more compelling, or may help you understand the other person’s proposal better.

Mentor others to stop whining, too. Make people around you accountable for being part of a solution by calling for their involvement in problems they help identify, especially if their responsible for “blocking” dissent.

Remember not to over correct on this philosophy. Complaining can be therapeutic. It’s okay for someone to not have a solution to a problem immediately. Sometimes it’s useful to just talk about things. However, when you agree with the philosophy of not whining, it seems peoples’ attitudes are different when presenting problems: often tones turn from adversarial to collaborative.

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