Guerilla Good Deed: Join the Campaign for a Complaint Free World

If you are having trouble coming up with a guerrilla good deed to do this week, here is a truly radical good deed…..stop complaining. It is easier to plant seeds in vacant lots and pick up litter along the side of the road than to stop complaining. However, I would argue that the benefits of not complaining far outweigh any physical act you could do.

If you truly want to go green, start with your relationships. Your relationships are as fragile as our planet’s ecosystem. They need to be planted with positive words and nurtured so they blossom with beauty and love. Complaining is as toxic to relationships as mercury is to landfills. A guerrilla good deed that only you will know about is rooting out your complaints from conversations like you would pull weeds from a garden. To help with this endeavor Pastor Will Bowen has developed a 21 day program to build a complaint free world.

The “A Complaint Free World” program began when Pastor Bowen told his congregation in a Sunday sermon that he wanted to make the world a complaint-free zone. He handed out purple bracelets to each church member and challenged them to go 21 days without complaining. If they caught themselves complaining they were to switch the bracelet to the opposite wrist and start from scratch counting the days. It took Bowen 3½ months to complete 21 consecutive complaint free days.

Bowen’s simple challenge to his congregation has spread throughout the country helped along by an appearance on Oprah. More than six million people have taken up the challenge to go 21 days without complaining, criticizing, or gossiping. The truly transformative concept behind this program is that by changing your words you can change your thoughts. By so doing you can heal your relationships and help the world. Just like recycling your old sneakers into playgrounds for disadvantaged youth, take your old negative thoughts and recycle them into something positive. You will be amazed at how your world will be transformed.

Let us know how your guerrilla good deeds are going.