My blog last week on The Habit of Sucking It Up must have struck a chord with a number of readers as I received more calls and emails than I have from any of my previous ranting’s.

It seems my new friend Jerry – the combat veteran – who called and suggested (demanded) the topic for last week’s blog – is not the only one who feels surrounded by whining, sniveling wimps whose lives are so difficult that they are left with no choice other than to complain incessantly.

Usually the calls I receive are either from readers calling to share their support for the topic or to inform me that I’m an idiot and do not know what I’m talking about.

That was not the case this past week as every call was from a person mirroring Jerry’s concerns about us becoming a nation of whiners.

One my favorite comments was from a lady I know well, and for whom I have enormous respect, who shared with me that it never fails to amaze her how often people will spend an hour of their lives complaining about a task that took them 10 minutes to complete.

It seems the The Habit of Sucking It Up has not integrated itself into our culture as readily as my callers would like and that all of our lives would be enormously enriched if we could all adopt this habit as a cultural norm versus the existing one of constant complaining.

The theme of each call and each conversation was this: into each life a little rain will fall – so what? It is what it is. Suck it up. Deal with it.

How true! Every single one of us, regardless of the severity of the stresses and challenges we face in our lives can, with minimal effort, find many people who would gladly trade their stresses and challenges for ours.

Several months ago in my Saturday blog I wrote of a neighbor – an Iraqi immigrant – who shared with me how frequently he has to bite his tongue when listening to his colleagues at work describe the unbearable stresses of their lives – the pressures of meeting deadlines at work, the stress of raising kids and all those other things that make them feel like they are living inside a pressure cooker.

He explained to me that it is impossible for him to participate in these conversations as he cannot relate to their definition of stressful events.

Prior to moving to Canada with his family he witnessed violence, cruelty and brutality of an indescribable nature. He shared with me stories of spending days locked in his own home with no food to feed his children while it was too dangerous to leave the house in search of food.

He told me that he understands that what these folks describe as stress is nothing more than their perspective and that they will never know how truly fortunate they are in being able to be totally stressed out by such minor events.

He also told me that he believes that each of his colleagues could bring far more joy and happiness into their lives if they would be willing to adopt The Habit of Sucking It Up as a way of life.

His philosophy is straightforward: Life happens, suck it up, deal with it, move on.

Let’s make a habit of meeting like this.

P.S. My book Life Sinks or Soars – the Choice is Yours now has its very own website. Please visit us at  www.lifesinksorsoars.com  and let me know what you think.

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