Finally something to moan about...

Challenge: To avoid 'moaning' for a week...

Difficulty: To avoid moaning - 3/5... to avoid complaining - 5/5...

Skills developed: An increased sense of self awareness... also- an increased ability at lying to myself...

Overview/Rant: Right- this may seem like a weird challenge to undertake... avoid 'moaning' for a week... BUT I ask you (the sexy reader) to consider the implications of this endeavor... to NOT moan, about anything, for an entire week... Sentences like: "God I'm tired," "Ugh, I have to go to work..." or "I feel real crappy" are exempt from your vocabulary.

Now- to say I epically failed this challenge would be the understatement of the century. (I actually moaned about how hard this challenge was... thus failing it drastically... then proceeded to moan about how I'd failed it by moaning.) You may ask yourself, "Well that sounds like a stupid challenge..." and you'd be perfectly entitled to your opinion (and a smack in the face) BUT the reasoning behind my undertaking of the challenge was to establish if I could AVOID moaning for a week. Could I become more self aware of how I portray myself to other people? Do I (we) moan at times when actually I (we) realistically have nothing to moan about? How does moaning affect my (our) friends and loved ones?

So in essence I decided that I would take a step towards being a positive person by avoiding to moan at all costs for the entire week... and like I said... I failed... miserably. BUT- I did keep track of how my moaning can really bug other people- and I think I've concluded that there is a very small, but VERY IMPORTANT (hence the capital letters) difference between 'moaning' and 'complaining.'

I feel, and I invite arguments here, that moaning and complaining are two very different things. Basically it comes down to 'why' you say something. The difference, I think,  between the two is that complaining 'should' be a constructive exercise- you vocalize your problem or issue in the hope of finding a resolution. The aim being that the other person can choose to assist in solving your problem or listening to you come up with possible solutions. The tone and manner in which it is spoken is highly relevant- it must be said with a positive outlook, i.e. that you know there is a solution to the thing that is troubling you... and so on and so forth... (what a great sentence for tying up an argument when you know you're running in circles...)

Moaning, on the other hand, is where you vocalize your problem with the hope of getting sympathy and/or attention. For example: "I'm exhausted..." Like- I'm sorry- but WHAT THE HELL is anybody supposed to do with that?! "Oh- you're tired... okay- here's an idea- GO TO SLEEP!" While this may seem a teeny bit insensitive... part of me says - well- is the insensitivity coming from the person who moaned or the person who had to listen to the moan? Moaning is in effect a negative thing- moaning begets moaning (so glad I finally got to use 'beget' in a sentence) While my definition for complaining may seem like a cop-out and a way of saying that "I wasn't moaning, I was complaining... it's constructive..." I do think its an important difference to note and I think its the crucial difference between portraying a negative or positive attitude. At the end of the day you have to ask yourself- am I moaning for the sake of moaning? Does my moaning actually make me feel better? Does my moaning 'effect' ('affect'- someone help me out there) the people around me?

So- that's my moaning about the issue... done.

May not seem like much of a challenge- but hey- you can moan about that in the comments section...

Fun Things: Through the week though- and the contemplation of moaning- I feel I've come up with the most common reoccurring types of moan...

DIRECT MOANING - this is where you directly moan to somebody about whatever is bothering you... examples include "I'm tired," "I'm hungry" and "My foot is killing me from kicking that kid in the crotch." It is the basic of all moans. 

SOLO MOANING - this is where you moan to yourself about something, realize that there's no one around to listen and immediately set out to find someone to listen to your moaning...

INDIRECT MOANING - this is where you moan about something unrelated to what's bothering you... like waiting at a bus stop and moaning about the weather, when really its the fact you have to get the bus that is bothering you.

ORGASMIC MOANING - obviously an acceptable type of moan...

THE "MAKING CONVERSATION" MOAN - a strange device used during awkward silences... examples include "Isn't the weather awful?" and "Don't you hate Mondays?"

THE TRYING TO GET OUT OF DOING SOMETHING MOAN - this is where you moan to try get out of doing something. This moan can actually turn into complaining as it sometimes is followed by a solution to said problem. For example: "I don't wanna go to lectures... let's go eat ice cream instead!" Now- this is a mix of moaning and complaining. I let it slide because there's ice cream involved.

THE "RHETORICAL QUESTION" MOAN - this is where the moaner hits the moanee (the person who is forced to listen to a moan) with a rhetorical moaning question to introduce the topic they're about to moan about... the moanee is left powerless to avoid the upcoming moan... "Don't you just hate it when the guy of your dreams asks you on a date and you say yes and then realize that you've got nothing sexy to wear and you haven't shaved your legs in days and then you're worried that he might already be eying up a younger fitter.... blah blah blah"

THE "SIGH" MOAN - this is a louder than usual 'sigh' followed by a large exhale of air... this moan says "No seriously- I'm not moaning, I'm just breathing out air... it can be tiring at times... I'm grand... don't worry about me... I'm just going to ride a tandem bike by myself now..."

THE "IT'S TOUGH BEING AWESOME" MOAN - this is where someone moans about how hard it is being the person 'their friends always rely on' or how they're exhausted from hours of charity work or how their legs hurt after running 15 miles in 7 minutes... they moan but secretly love having a one-up on you for being a much better human being. This moan says "Oh me- when I'm not busy saving someones life or doing a million sit-ups I'm usually teaching blind kids how to see... but you haven't commented on how awesome I am recently so I'm going to pretend to complain to remind you of how awesome I am. I am awesome... and humble... which only makes me that much more awesome"

THE 'MOANING ABOUT MOANING' MOAN - this is usually done by someone in blog format who has way too much time on his hands...

Recommendation: Try it- seriously try to avoid moaning for a week. I found that once I accepted the fact that it wasn't beneficial in any way I actually started to feel a lot better about the whole thing. If you're not going to try it then at least try keep count at the number of times you moan in a day. You may be surprised...

Conclusion: Definitely a challenge. 

Special Thanks: Rebecca who listened to me moan relentlessly while I was sick on Monday. To Mum and Dad for their support, and mocking, of my attempt at not moaning.

Next Challenge: It's still mystery March- so I can't divulge BUT I will tell you that the next challenge is going to involve everybody I meet so it should be quite interesting.  May the games begin...

Random Thoughts: Try google image searching "moaning" or youtube-ing it... seriously... it's ridiculous...

But aside from that- it lead me to this song... which I'm liking- it's also ANIME-tastic...