Does Ranting Work?
I rant. Sometimes in fact I don’t even realise I’m doing it until half way though. By then of course it is too late to stop, or
ate least that is my excuse.
There is an endless stream of life stuff we can rant about:
- Bills
- Taxes
- Work
- Other drivers
and of course politics and other peoples points of views.
Some people make an entire career ranting about the state of society or what the latest?celebrities?are doing with their private lives.
Facebook is a favourite place to vent our rants but then I sometimes stop myself and wonder if there is any point to ranting. I don’t feel much better after it and I’ve done nothing to change the situation at all.
If we do rant of course, others will agree with us or disagree which then turns the rant into a full scale argument.
I’m slowly learning not to comment on other peoples rants and not to rant myself even when I’m alone. Letting go of stuff which isn’t really important leaves space in my mind for peace and quiet.
Paul Browning
Tag:Ranting
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14 Comments
My biggest rant: Useless people around me, particularly colleagues.
I have been working as a teacher and from time to time (when the manager is away) I have to manage a bunch of other teachers. In general, we all work well together and I delegate the right person for each task. The ‘machine’ works well except for one piece of sh*t – sorry cog – and for the past 4 years I have been carrying him. He does nothing right and everyone knows it but have you tried to sack anyone lately? Then you get lazy so and so’s and you end up doing their work.
This situation has made me determined never to work for anyone. I want to be my own boss. And Paul is my inspiration.
I am not motivated by money and I don’t mind working long hours as long as I don’t have to put up with useless twats.
Another – family/friends.
The reason I missed this weeks Motivation seminar is because we have a wedding in the family and the bride-t-be’s dad and others have been sitting on their arses and not got anything done. I and the missus have had to go in and sort things out. I am totally shattered (getting only 2 hours sleep a night plus going to work) but (hopefully) everything is in place and the wedding should go according to plan.
I am still managing to get some study in though as I will be CCNP and have started my own business by this time next year. Nothing will stop me.
Hey Paul when is the stuff on Contracting coming out? 😉
I agree about ranting turning into an argument. There are a lot of people out there who do not realize that ranting sometimes just helps me calm down and lets me express what it is that gets me so upset. Once I’ve ranted, I’m usually done with the anger, but if someone takes my rant the wrong way, now I’ve got to face an argument.
I’m also working on letting go of things, but it’s difficult! I would like to enjoy some peace and quiet, as you have been able to.
My biggest source of irritation is driving. I spend a lot of my time sitting in traffic getting worked up about it. That one of the reasons that I am trying to make some big changes in my life.
Ranting in the car is completely useless. It does not make the traffic go away. It just provokes the other drivers and raises my blood pressure. I have been trying to enjoy my time in the car by listening to audiobooks that interest me.
You’re right about people making a career out of ranting about things. It is so natural to want to complain about everything. But you make a good point about what ranting really accomplishes. There is a short term sense of relief about getting the anger off your chest, but there are consequences to it as well.
If it is an increased productivity we are after, then getting upset about things seems to undermine that goal.
I’m with you. I am trying hard not to sweat the small stuff anymore.
Hi Faruk
I know were you are coming from.
A few years ago I was asked to teach my Senior Technician, whom I was supposed to go to if I wanted to know about something, how to work in one of the latest Telephone exchanges. He was quite in his neck of the woods and they wanted him to do some work as he was a lazy so and so..
I showed him around and as I was busy, showed him how to do a simple part of the work I had to get done and then I would teach him the ins and outs once the work was done.
I was upstairs doing my own work and the phone started ringing, it was him phoning from downstairs asking stupid questions that I as a senior Tech he should know.
After the 10th phone call, I asked him to come up stairs I took the work sheets off him and told him to go away in no uncertain terms and phoned my boss and told him what I had done.
I had played into his hands he did not wish to learn, because it would mean he would have no excuse as he would be able to go anywhere.
It seems you get these people everywhere they just want to sit and do nothing while others around them carry them.
Robert
Unfortunately I am a ranter. It just happens when things get under my skin. But I am starting to realize that it seems like other people think that I am not very calm.
It helps me when I can just get what’s bothering me out. That is why I have started to keep a journal of my rants. At least it is private.
I rant about things I read in the news. I need to keep up with current events because I trade stocks, but it agitates me. I try not to get affected by it, but I definitely could use some work on it.
True. I ranted about the hot water heater not working this morning, but it did not fix the hot water heater. Just got me into an argument. Calling the repair man DID fix the hot water heater. I should have done that in the first place and saved myself the bad feelings.
Ranting is definitely cathartic in the short term, but it is potentially damaging in the long term.
I think its unhealthy to rant. There is a law called law of compensation. in an illustration it was explained like this. If your out freezing, you don’t focus on wanting to be warm and minding the cold at the same time, you focus on building a fire to create heat and focus on that, the heat goes away. let me just say that i use to rant about the Government, and other governments who impose the gun ban. I thought they were stupid, didn’t they know that imposing a gun ban would only increase the crime rate. then i found myself ranting about other things. i kept ranting about stuff and so i kept encountering those stuff. when i discovered this law though, everything seemed to dissipate. No longer did these things bother me. in fact they seemed trivial. I used to hate bobbies (Policemen/ traffic enforcers), I hated how they’d confiscate my driver’s license and give me a ticket. And so i always had to deal with them. Now I don’t hate them. Guess what? I never dealt with them again. No one had to pull me over anymore. Coincidence? I don’t think so!
I think ranting never works, never solves the problem. I think If everyone stopped ranting and focused on a solution we all can achieve more. I remember stories of Jesus, and i don’t remember a part where he rants or blames people. right until he was crucified he still asked God to forgive the people who did him wrong.
Ranting never works. Sometimes it does but most of the time your just gonna be brushed off unless its a hotel or a restaurant. and you don’t want to even start yelling at them. The amount of testimonials I hear from the employees there are quite frightening. For instance if you are mean to your waiter, he just might take a leak in your beer once you’ve started to get too many. and some even throw your steak on dirt since dirt does resemble pepper. My advice be kind don’t rant.
I used to rant a lot more than I do now. I?d blow off steam, and then it was over ? so I thought. *I?d* feel fine and no longer be angry, but others around me would feel hurt or upset and would *not* be able to let it go. I realized that I was being self-indulgent to rant at others with no regard for how it made them feel. Now I try to keep it to myself, or to quickly apologize when I catch myself behaving this way.
Clearly ranting does not work in the long run. You just develop a reputation for being trouble.