My brief 2¢, and also my own way of doing hard things: you're allowed to complain. I've been in strength training for 15+ years, and as fellow weightlifters know it never ever get easier (if it does, you're doing it wrong). Sometimes I really don't feel like it, even after all these years, and I complain about it. I complain all the way to the gym, complain through every set of heavy squats, huff and puff each set of sumos, complain all the way home, whine up the stairs, and finally complain in, under, and out of the shower.
What works for me: forcing myself to start a task, with permission to give up at any time. It often extends to my true goal once I start, but still allows me to exit early when I'm in a bad mood without feeling too bad.
Going to the gym? 95% of the time I get a decent workout once I gey there. Once I was in a particularly bad mood, so I arrived, warmed up and left. It felt liberating!
Going for a walk? It feels nice most of the time once I get in the rhythm. Sometimes it doesn't, so I come back after a few minutes.
Reading? I wanna do it more. So the goal is to read at least a single page - often it leads to many more, sometimes it's just that page and that's it.
The routine + acceptance of sometimes giving up really takes a lot of stress away from me!
In keeping with the article: what value you are achieving with this behavior?
The article mentions doing a "tombstone" exercise: What would be written on your tombstone if you lived the life you wanted? What would be written on your tombstone if you died today? What can you do about the difference?
I would guess (and it's just a guess), that you work out because you want to be healthy? So, would it be important to you that in your eulogy it mentioned that you were healthy? Or maybe you would want it mentioned that you had bigger muscles than other people? Like, what's the value you're chasing? Since it sounds like overall the experience mostly sucks.
To complain is not a bad thing, and the thing you're complaining about isn't necessary unpleasant. Sometimes you just feel lazy. All those self-help guru questions are not my cup o' tea, you do you
Wouldn't it be more productive to focus on how awesome your workout was? Especially if you have been doing it for years you probably do sets with weights that the average person could not do as a 1-rep max.
Replacing a mindset of complaint with gratitude will bring about an entirely different world view and free up energy that is otherwise burned up in the 'complaining circuitry'. It can be difficult but is certainly worth the effort. You will absolutely become more productive.
But this was in response to a commenter describing a behavior of complaining, which may or may not coincide with a mindset of complaint. And the tone of the comment suggests that it doesn't.
A mindset of gratitude can coexist happily with regular complaining. One can be grateful to have something to complain about, or be grateful about how it feels to complain or have complaints heard, or just be both grateful about something and complain about it (marriage, anyone? Video games? Movies? Job? Family?)
>> A mindset of gratitude can coexist happily with regular complaining
No, it cannot. It is the case that one may not have a mindset of exclusively complaint, as one may have developed a capacity for more gratitude through the effort of being conscious. As long as there is any energy being exerted for complaint, that is energy that can be conserved and utilized for higher purpose.
For a complaint to reach all the way through the body and out the mouth, it must have already been processed through the brain. Complaining in all forms is a type of negative expression, and drains energy. The OP was commenting about how they complain going to the gym, at the gym, coming home from the gym, and while showering after the gym. I'm not sure what you're looking for as a definition of 'mindset of complaint', but this I'd suggest this is suitable.
You can think of complaining, an expression of negativity, as basically a polar opposite of gratitude. To begin cultivating something of a higher order, it will help to attempt to 'reconcile' the feeling of the two by feeling them both simultaneously. When you feel like complaining, or catch yourself doing so, make attempts to begin feeling gratitude. You'll soon find the gratitude will replace the complaining. After doing this enough, you will develop enough sensitivity and acumen to begin actually feeling both sensations at the same time, holding onto the 'complaining' feeling, while reaching toward the gratitude as well. Over time, you will be able to find yourself 'integrating' the two faster and faster, nearer the moment the feelings come into consciousness. Eventually (years), your 'complaining' will be supplanted and you will have a different mode of experience.
