Whining is everywhere. Open your ears and you will hear it in every restaurant, at the supermarket, on television, on the radio, in your workplace, in your home, and even inside your own head or coming out of your own mouth.

We have even made whining the number one entertainment pro­gram in the world today. Have you ever watched Jerry Springer? Do not try to deny it. I ask that question in my speeches and no one ever admits it. It did not become one of the world’s number one-rated tele­vision programs by people not watching it. So you have seen it.

The show amazes me. It is about people who will not take respon­sibility for their circumstances and are on the show just to whine. You will see some guy on there who is totally confused by the fact that both his wife and his girlfriend are leaving him. He just cannot figure out how that could happen. Well, let me see. You are fat, ugly, and stupid; you have tattoos from head to toe and only have three teeth. Get a clue!

Very few of us are willing to take responsibility for what is hap­pening in our life. Why should we? No one is really asking us to. People are becoming more and more tolerant of the whiners. It is so commonplace we hardly notice it any more.

Not me. I notice. And it makes me sick. What I find is the whin­ers, if you can get them to shut up for a minute, are also sick of whin­ing. They are whining to get attention and they really want someone to grab them and tell them to shut up, stop whining, and get a life!

So if you are a whiner, and we all are from time to time, I believe you are sick of it and are ready for things to change. You are sick of not doing well; sick of the failures; sick of being broke; sick of the lousy relationships; sick and tired of being sick and tired; just plain sick of it all.

If you are unhappy, unsuccessful, sick or broke- please just keep it to yourself. The rest of us do not want or need to hear about it, so do not feel compelled to share!

The following letter is a prime example of the kind of whining I am talking about. It is a real letter that was sent to me by a “fan.” I have not changed one word of it-not the punctuation, not the spelling, and not the whining.

Dear Mr. Winget,

I hope you can find time in your busy schedule to read my letter. I am so troubled, I truly wish you can help. I will try to make this as brief as possible. I am a thirty-six year old hairstylist. I am single, and my life is so painful. I really do not know who to turn to. My dream in life is to have a successful career doing something I enjoy. But my biggest dream in life is to get married and have a family. And that dream has just been shattered. I met and fell in love with the girl of my dreams. It was heaven sent, we both thought the world of each other. But she decided we were moving too fast and she left me. I am completely devastated and heartbroken. We had both told each other that we were perfect for each other.

Now I am alone. My second problem is my career. Throughout my life growing up I was brought up to be a pro baseball player by my parents. They never taught me the importance of school, as long as I could hit homeruns. Well I barely graduated high school. That summer I had tryouts with two professional teams. I did not make either team. Now I was lost. I had to take any job I could.

For years I al­ways thought I was going to be a star in the major leagues. I never gave any other career a thought. I decided to become a hairstylist. Schooling was only a year, and I would have a career. I never really had it in my heart to be a hairstylist. Now fifteen years later I am miserable. I do not want to be a hairstylist any more. This depresses me everyday. I would love to have a career helping people not end up like me. Help them set goals and help them obtain them. How do I get a career like that? My third problem is that I am in major financial debt. I just recently filed for bankruptcy. I had a major gambling problem, which is now under control. This is so difficult for me I feel so trapped. I want to change ca­reers, settle down and get married. But with my financial problem I can­not do either. Please I would truly appreciate any advice you could share with me. I am heartbroken, broke and confused.

Thank you sincerely,

Joe Bob Whiner (Not his real name but it should be.)

Are you sick yet? Is it any wonder his girlfriend left him? When I read this letter I nearly threw up! Want to know what my advice was? “Shut up, stop whining, and get a life!” I wrote this guy back and told him I had never read such a pitiful pile of drivel in my life. I told him that he was sickening to himself and to everyone around him and now to me; I asked how could he be surprised by his crummy life when his outlook on life was so crummy. Then I went on to ex­plain in detail what was wrong and what he could do to fix his life. I gave him the condensed version of this book (you are getting the whole load). But the message is the same. By the way, about six weeks later the guy wrote me another letter thanking me for being the only person who ever told him to quit whining and get on with his life. The other responses he received were “nice” and commiser­ated with him about how sad it all was. He said my response had changed his direction and he was making major improvements. However, the really sad thing is that this letter is pretty typical of what is going on in our society.