Stop Treating Every Problem Like a Hurricane: A New Framework For Complaining Less

Chasing Excellence

Ben Bergeron & Patrick Cummings

Health & Fitness, Education, Health, Mindset, Fitness, Self-improvement, Crossfit, Wellness, Holistic Health

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 November 2025

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What if the problem isn't your problems — it's how you're categorizing them?

In this episode, we share a five-category framework for complaints (from drizzle to hurricane) that will change how you respond to life's challenges. Learn how to calibrate your emotional responses, stop suffering from small stuff, and build the resilience you need when real storms hit.

The wisdom is in the calibration. Most things don't matter at all, and the things that do matter matter a ton. Learn the difference.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we get into this week's episode, a quick question. Have you joined us over on Substack yet?
0:05.8	If not, then consider this your personal invitation. Head over to chasingexcellance.
0:10.6	Email, sign up. It's free. It's the best way to get even more out of these episodes,
0:15.2	out of Chasing Excellence. You can get listener guides, essays, challenges, and more.
0:20.0	The link is in the episode description,
0:22.4	so it's just a quick tap. We would love to see you over there. Okay, onward.
0:30.9	Hello, how are you? Welcome back to the show. Hello, Ben. How the heck are you?
0:36.4	I'm good, Patrick. Really the heck are you? Good. Patrick.
0:55.3	Really good. We're going to talk today about complaining. We're not going to complain. So fun. What a great way to lead into something, right? Especially for our audience. Everyone's riveted right now. Don't worry. I heard you tell a story. I think this was in the summer. We haven't had a chance to talk about it here on the show.
1:13.5	A story about how you, sort of like the origin stories of a bit of a new framework for you, for us. So I wanted you to start this conversation. If you could give us the story one more time, lead us into this new framework all around complaining, and then we're going to take it from there. So wherever, wherever you think is the best place to start, let's start there.
1:16.9	Once upon a time, there was a boy.
1:27.0	So the idea was the kind of like the birth child of this framework happened where I was, I'm lucky enough to both
1:29.1	my parents are still alive. My mom lives on the beach on Cape Cod. It's where we spend our
1:34.0	summers. It had this amazing day and towards the end of the day, I'm on the beach with my mom
1:39.3	and we're there and she was complaining because the storm, these storms come in and they bring in a lot of debris, you know, like twigs, seaweed, rocks.
1:51.7	And her beach was a mess.
1:53.2	And I'm cleaning up the beach.
1:54.7	And she comes down.
1:56.3	And she's just trying to make conversation, you know, a good mom like she is.
1:59.9	Yeah.
2:00.3	And she starts just like complaining about how messy the beach is.
2:05.7	And I, you know, you always kind of like this was like a should I go here or not.
	...

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