Featured Blog : A 4-Step Guide to Ranting Productively

Written by Carl Richards

For the last 15 years, Carl Richards has been writing and drawing about the relationship between emotion and money to help make investing easier for the average investor. His first book, “Behavior Gap: Simple Ways to Stop Doing Dumb Things With Money,” was published by Penguin/Portfolio in January 2012. Carl is the director of investor education at BAM Advisor Services. His sketches can be found at behaviorgap.com, and he also contributes to the New York Times Bucks Blog and Morningstar Advisor. You can now buy – “The Behavior Gap” by Carl Richards on AMAZON.

August 14, 2018

There’s nothing wrong with ranting. Most people do it. I would argue that everybody needs to do it. In fact, I’d even suggest that ranting is a good thing.

But only if you do it right. If you do it wrong, the consequences can cost you your job, your friendships or even your marriage.

So learn how to rant productively. You need to practice often (and if you’re like me, this won’t be an issue). And you need to follow certain rules. Here are four to live by.

1) Do. Not. Send. 

If you find yourself having even the tiniest shadow of a doubt about whether or not you should really send that email, the answer is automatically, immediately and unequivocally no. The same goes for blog posts, social media and text messages.

If you simply have to get something out, send it to yourself. Sometimes all you really need is the satisfaction of clicking the send button. It doesn’t necessarily matter who the message goes to.

2) Find a friend. 

If you rant in a forest and nobody hears it, is it still satisfying? Maybe not. Ranting may only feel good if someone is there to appreciate all your witty and snarky remarks. But choose your audience wisely. Instead of ranting to the person you’re frustrated with (or to the whole world), rant to someone you trust.

Use this script: “I need to get something off my chest. You don’t have to actually listen. Please just wait until I’m done and then agree with everything I say.” By the way, if you want to rant about a co-worker, don’t do it to another co-worker. Your rant friend should be deeply trusted and, if at all possible, completely detached from the subject.

3) Not in public. 

There are certain things we really shouldn’t do in public. Ranting is one of them. I regret every time I’ve broken this rule. Grab your friend, go somewhere quiet and peaceful, and then go nuts. Nobody is in their best form when they’re ranting. Why would you ever want to put that on display?

4) Don’t rant to fix things. 

This is key. The rant is for you. Your rant will not change the issue or the person you are frustrated with. Save that goal for later. Think of ranting as something you do with the singular purpose of changing yourself. Get it all out. Purge. Once you’ve taken care of yourself, then you can start thinking about fixing someone or something else.

You May Also Like…

Allow yourself to make a mistake

Allow yourself to make a mistake

No one I know likes to make mistakes or sets out doing something with the intention of making a mistake. Children may,...

0 Comments

Submit a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Subscribe to our newsletter!

Join our mailing list to get updates straight to your inbox!

You have Successfully Subscribed!