The other day I was reading Student Doctor Network… that site where students panic after reading the horror stories on future of pharmacy. You’ll read the same things time and time again…

Gloom and doom of pharmacy

Gloom and doom of pharmacy

And then the comments start rolling in… saying “You need to stop complaining”. And the keyboard wars begin and people start complaining more. But let’s play a game.

What if complaining was useful? What would be the benefits for complaining? Here are four benefits for complaining.

Keyboard warriors

Keyboard warriors

1. Complaining makes us feel good.

I remember one time in the pharmacy, one of my patients was complaining that she was waiting for five minutes. You heard me right. I’m not going to go into detail about what really goes on when filling a prescription, but go into any CVS on a Monday at 5 PM. Your ass is going to wait at least an hour.

Complaining about ridiculous people feels good and lets that mudda boolshit out. It’s a great emotional release for anger, frustration, and dumbass-ness. Most of all it makes it easier to move on with the rest our lives.

Story of my life

Story of my life

2. Complaining brings people closer together.

Impatient patients

GTFO

I deal with a lot of crazy people at the pharmacy… including this crazy bitch. At the time, I couldn’t believe that selfish ass people existed and would actually act this way. It felt great sharing this story on Facebook, reading the comments, and realizing I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. At the end of the day, complaining can help others relate to our experiences and bring us closer together.

3. Complaining turns us into problem finding machines.

Not too long ago I was going wondering if escaping pharmacy was possible. I let myself have free reign about why I couldn’t do it and what was holding me back. Things like this were popping up in my notebook.

I feel so tired after my pharmacy shift. My brain is fried listening to people’s mudda boolshit!
I’m a pharmacist. I don’t know how to do video, setup a website, or write articles. FUCK.
It takes so damn long to do ANYTHING with a 40 hour job.
There’s too much to do…

Then I STFU and wrote down questions that a “perfect” version of me would ask.

I started asking myself things like…

How do top performing people set up their schedules?
What are the resources I have access to that I’m not taking advantage of?
What are the most important things I should focus on right now and what should I ignore?

Complaining can make us aware to problems that we’re having. If we don’t know what’s wrong, how can make things better?

4. Complaining can make us motivated.

TRUTH

Oh boy. Class of 2013. Graduation happened. We were ready to change the healthcare profession. Opportunities seemed limitless.

Then one year later I heard those dreaded words from one of my pharmacy friends…

“Kevin… I hate pharmacy. I guess I’m just meant to do this for the rest of my life”

Fuck. Somewhere along the way, my friends lost hope. My friends were complaining to me and just settling. I wanted to do something to help. This is one of the reasons why I pursued Refugee Hustle with Joe. I wanted to inspire, motivate, and help people get not only what they wanted… but what they deserved.

Complaining helps us connect emotionally and can motivate us for change.

Refugee Hustle

Refugee Hustle

Complaining is not entirely bad.

Complaining is a human evolutionary trait and has its purpose. The problem is that feel good feeling from venting can become addicting and can make us into chronic pessimists. The most important thing about complaining is not to stay stuck complaining. We need to use it as motivation and actually change.

I want to ask you this… what are somethings that you currently complain about? Leave a comment below. 

Kevin

PS… At the end of the day, no one likes a nagger.

Naggers.