Tag: venting

Chronic complaining: don’t be such a “Greiner Zanner”

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 22 Comments

by Carolyn Thomas   ♥  @HeartSisters

I called my favorite flower shop last week to complain.  Earlier that morning, I had picked up a bouquet of mini-gerbera flowers for our condo lobby, as I like to do each week.  The gerberas (pictured above) were advertised as seven stems for $5.99. But when I got home and unwrapped the bouquet, I counted only five. My first thought: (a) maybe miscounted by a busy florist?  My second thought: (b) maybe ALL of the displayed bouquets had only five stems, too – despite the “seven stems” advertised in this week’s flyer?  The nice lady on the phone offered me two free gerbera stems if I wanted to come back to the shop to pick them up.

“These aren’t ‘FREE’ “,  I snapped at her. “I’ve already paid you for SEVEN!”  And I did not go back.  Instead, I stewed over that interaction.     .     Continue reading “Chronic complaining: don’t be such a “Greiner Zanner”” →

Oneupmanship: you think YOU have pain?

~ Carolyn Thomas ~ 14 Comments

Screen Shot 2015-09-01 at 2.09.31 PM

by Carolyn Thomas  ♥  @HeartSisters

Have you ever been in the middle of telling somebody something important to you, only to be interrupted because what you’ve just said has reminded them of their own (far more fascinating!) story that clearly outshines yours? It’s a scene-stealing moment of oneupmanship. Or as author Stephen Covey once lamented:

“Most people do not listen with the intent to understand; they listen with the intent to reply.”

Oneupmanship is perhaps most memorably represented in the iconic Monty Python Four Yorkshiremen skit (pictured above) in which the lads sit around and argue about which one of them had endured the worst poverty in childhood. “A house? You were lucky to live in a house! We lived in one room, all 26 of us!”
 Continue reading “Oneupmanship: you think YOU have pain?” →