Stop Whining – Put Your Big Boy Pants On
I have to laugh every time I hear this saying: Put Your Big Boy Pants On, or, so we don’t leave anyone out, Put Your Big Girl Pants On!
I never thought I’d be inspired by anything Kobe Bryant said, but I heard this expression most recently when he was talking about how, after some early season difficulties, his teammate Pau Gasol had to step up, stop whining, and make it happen.
I’ve been going through some challenging stuff recently with the illness of my Dad and this expression keeps popping into my head. So, I have to admit it then, something Kobe said was useful and inspiring to me. Thanks, Kobe, from a lifelong Celtics fan.
There’s a great need for more “big boy pants” thinking in our society. There’s too much of a tendency to whine and to blame others for our problems. This is not constructive. I like to refer to it as the “victim mindset” – where people are not willing to take control of and responsibility for their own lives and actions. Some people seem to actually enjoy walking around with a (figurative) large “V” for “victim” stamped on their forehead.
So, next time you’re thinking about whining, consider the following benefits of putting your big boy (girl) pants on:
1.) You’re taking a positive step to take control of the situation.
2.) You’re maintaining your self-respect by not becoming a willing victim.
3.) You’re keeping the insidious procrastination tendency at bay.
4.) You’re setting an example for those who look to you as a role model.
5.) You’re acknowledging reality, rather than taking the ostrich approach and burying your head in the sand.
6.) You’re increasing the odds that the outcome of the situation will be to your liking.
7.) You’re performing a public service of sorts, to help keep us from becoming a nation (world) of whiners.
Put those big boy pants (or big girl pants) on and set an example for those around you! You can then also keep the mirrors in your house and not worry what you’re going to see when you happen to look into one of them.
I look forward to your thoughts! Please leave a comment (“response”) below or in the upper right corner of this post.
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