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I think this is a great idea!! You definitely will need to set some smaller, more specific goals to attain this bigger one, though. My friend's youth group does this thing where every time a person says something negative or mean to or about another person, they have to say 3 "builder statements" about that person. Builder statements are just compliments, but they have to be sincere. I think you could do this for yourself, every time you think something negative about yourself, tell yourself 3 things you love about yourself and be sincere about it. You can also do this in your head when you find yourself thinking something negative about another person. I wish you the best of luck in this!!

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Here is a TO-DO that will help you with an idea for a concrete plan.

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It just slipped out, and I don't think I can be blamed. I was ready to leave the PC behind and take my Mac overseas for the first time when I couldn't figure out how to resize photos. On a friggin' Mac? I felt swindled. I also now had to move the bracelet.

For the last four months, I've been experimenting with a few types of thought experiments. The two most notable are Radical Honesty, which is 100 percent guaranteed to get you slapped or worse, and anti-complaining, which I'll explain here. The latter started in my book agent's office, where I spotted a pile of purple bracelets on his desk...

"What are these?" I grabbed one and it was inscribed with 'acomplaintfreeworld.org.'
"Another author of mine. Interesting story, actually."
And it was. The author was Will Bowen, a Kansas City minister who had recognized -- as I have in a previous post -- that word choice determines thought choice, which determines emotions and actions. It's not enough to just decide you'll stop using certain words, though. It requires conditioning.

Will designed a solution in the form of a simple purple bracelet, which he offered to his congregation with a challenge: go 21 days without complaining. Each time one of them complained, they had to switch the bracelet to their other wrist and start again from day 0. It was simple but effective metacognitive awareness training.

The effects were immediate and life-changing.

The bracelets spread like wildfire as others observed these transformations, and, to date, more than 5,900,000 people have requested the little devices.

"Can I have one?" I asked my agent.

It all made perfect sense. Fix the words and you fix the thoughts. I'm not a negative person, but I wanted to cut out the commiserating most of us use for 30-40 percent of all conversation (if you don't believe me, keep track of how many people start conversations with you in the next 24 hours that center on a complaint or criticism).

I made it 11 days on the first attempt, then I slipped. Back to zero. Then it was two or three days at a time for about a month. Once I cleared 21 days at around month 3, I no longer needed the bracelet. I'm using the bracelet again now because I'm preparing for some large projects I expect to be challenging enough for Cornholio-style meltdowns.
But what is a complaint?
This is where I disagree with some of the rules set by Will. He asks you to switch wrists whenever you gossip, criticize, or complain, and the definitions can be a bit vague. He also requires you to switch wrists if you inform someone else they are complaining. I think this is counterproductive, as I'm big on constructive criticism.

I defined "complaining" for myself as follows: describing an event or person negatively without indicating next steps to fix the problem. I later added the usual four-letter words and other common profanity as complaint qualifiers, which forced me to reword, thus forcing awareness and more precise thinking.

Following the above definition, both of the following would require a wrist switch:
"Man, I went into the post office and had to stand behind this rude jerk for 30 minutes. What a waste of time."
or

"John can be such an a**hole. Totally uncalled for."

The following variations would not:
"Man, I went into the post office and had to stand behind this rude guy for 30 minutes. It was a waste of time. From now on, I'll go in the mornings before 10 a.m. to avoid the crowd."
"John was a bit of muppet in there, wasn't he? I suppose I'll just send the e-mails directly to Mary in engineering for the next two weeks to get buy-in, then he'll have to agree."

Here are a few of the changes I noticed then and am noticing again now:

1) My lazier thinking evolved from counterproductive commiserating to reflexive systems thinking. Each description of a problem forced me to ask and answer: What policy can I create to avoid this in the future?
2) I was able to turn off negative events because the tentative solution had be offered instead of giving them indefinite mental shelf-life (and "open loop" in GTD parlance), resulting in better sleep and more pleasant conversations with both friends and business partners.
3) People want to be around action-oriented problem solvers. Training yourself to offer solutions on-the-spot attracts people and resources.

For those interested in the more sophisticated applications and results of the the no-complaint thought experiment, I recommend you order a copy of A Complaint-Free World. I received an advanced copy and finished it in one afternoon, ending up with two pages of notes.
Want to take the 21-day no-complaint challenge for a test drive now?
Last a friend checked, the bracelets had a 3-5-month waiting period, but a rubber band or other bracelet will suffice. If you want the real deal, I have four bracelets that I will mail (might take a bit, as I'm leaving the country Friday) to the best four commenters below who answer the question:
What other behavior, besides complaining, do you think people should stop? How could train themselves to stop? For more articles like this by Tim, visit fourhourblog.com Related and Recommended Posts:
Not-To-Do Lists, Drugs, and Other Secrets of Productivity
"Productivity" Tricks for the Neurotic, Manic-Depressive, and Crazy (Like Me)

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I Went 21 Days Without Complaining And It Changed My Life

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It just slipped out, and I don't think I can be blamed. I was ready to leave the PC behind and take my Mac overseas for the first time when I couldn't figure out how to resize photos. On a friggin' Mac? I felt swindled. I also now had to move the bracelet.

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One good idea for how to measure success is to get some kind of band bracelet and, everytime a negative thought creeps in, move the band from one wrist to the other. Your goal is to get to where you don't move it at all. I did this with complaining. This article describes it:

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This is a great topic. Of course being positive has better effects on your life than negativity. I am the kind of person that usually looks at things with the glass half empty perspective, and that is something I am also working on. You can do it! You could also definitely us the glass half full or empty analogy in your paper.

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I think this is awesome and I want to start by wishing you luck, because this will be difficult.
This may be cheesy, but the first step is with yourself and making sure you are positive about yourself 24/7. Finding all the good things in yourself and realizing that positivity can come from yourself, especially digging in deep where you least expect to find it, will help finding the good in other people and in the world. Also, cheesy quotes really help.
I wish you much luck and hope you achieve your goal.

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I really like this idea. I think it is 100% attainable, but also realize that it can be really tough to change your thought process and eliminate negative thoughts right away. It is going to be a process, and along the way, there might be situations where it is tough to think positively, but just make sure to keep the end goal in mind, which could give you a little extra motivation.

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I think that this is really difficult to do because while I think it is possible to address negativity in yourself, you might find it challenging to confront it in others. And I feel like more than just not being negative is important. You'll want to try to confront people being unnecessarily negative and try and succeed in more ways than just with yourself. I think it's a great idea and I believe in you !

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I really like your idea. I think that it is really interesting and overall a great way to create a "better me." However, it does seem a bit hard to quantify negative energy. How will you know if there is less negative energy in 30 days than in the beginning? So it might be a little bit hard to know if you have succeeded, but overall I really like it and I think that you will succeed!

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I love the idea of putting more positivity out there. Make sure you think about what you're going to do on each day so you can really measure the progress. Maybe keep tallies on your left hand for every negative thought about yourself, and tallies on your right hand for every negative thought about others. That way you'll have a tangible idea of the negativity throughout the day. Also maybe you could do compliments in a different color or something. But I think this is really cool and will make life seem less stressful.

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I like your goal, but I do think that you could add some specific measurements of your goals. How will you know that you succeeded? If you already have that somewhere you are in good shape.

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I feel that I can demonstrate determination by trying to control my thought processes and to focus more on the good. I will walk away from negative people or possibly talk to them about their negativity. I will start speaking up more in class and will not be scared to put my opinions out there. I will also keep my opinions to myself and will immediately start thinking about something else if negative opinions arise in my mind.

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Negative thoughts just produce negative outcomes, so I do not want any negativity from others or myself, to come in the way of opportunities, friendships, or just my outlook on life.

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Where does negativity stem from?

What are the consequences of negativity / being surrounded by negative people?

How can negativity be fixed / what comes in the way of fixing negativity?

What are the benefits of having a positive attitude?

How does negativity and a lack of self-confidence intertwine?

Why is it so easy to bash ourselves and other? Why is it hard to accept compliments and to believe in ourselves?