Can You Please Not Complain ... for 21 Days?

April 17, 2008— -- We've all done it -- griped at the slow driver ahead of us, complained about our boss, the weather, our health.

Pastor Will Bowen of Christ Church Unity in Kansas City, Mo., believes whining has become a national epidemic -- and a roadblock to prosperity. So he started preaching about it.

"I wanted people to stop focusing on what they didn't have in their lives and complaining about it, and to start focusing on what they do have in their lives and being grateful for it."

Bowen had an idea. He handed out purple rubber bracelets and instructed parishioners to move them from one wrist to the other every time they uttered a complaint.

The goal? Not to have to move the bracelet for 21 days.

Click Here for Your Free Bracelet: The church has set up a Web site to expedite orders for bracelets, books and T-shirts.

"I believe that your mind is a manufacturer, and your mouth is a customer. And if the customer stops buying what the manufacturer is producing -- in other words, you stop complaining, the manufacturer retools, and you literally start thinking happier thoughts," Bowen said.

It wasn't easy.

"It took me three months to go 21 consecutive days, and I broke three bracelets in the process just switching it back and forth," Bowen admits.

Eventually, the pastor stopped griping. Remarkably, so did members of his church, including Paul Skeyen.

"It took two weeks to make it through the first day," Skeyen said. "It's very difficult."

Paul and his wife, Anita, sell real estate.

So how do they talk about the market without sounding as if they're complaining?

"We need to run the numbers and share the facts," explained Anita. "And it's not a complaint if you're sharing the facts."

Going "complaint-free" has changed their lives in a number of ways.

"I feel happy. I feel reborn, like a kid again," explained Paul. "That's how I feel through this whole process."

It has also narrowed the Skeyens' social circle.

"'We've found there are a lot of friends we just don't communicate with anymore, because they complain constantly," Paul said.