I’ve been thinking about what I’ll call the sneaky sins: complaining and worrying.

And yeah, I mean sins—not in some heavy, moral, finger-pointing way. To me, a sin is anything that separates you from your vitality, your purpose, or the life you actually want to be living. In that sense, these two bad habits absolutely qualify.

They drain you. They waste your energy, your breath, your life force. They don’t move anything forward. They don’t create change. They just… take.

Most people lean toward one or the other. Some of us, at times, do both. Either way, they cost you something real.

Worry, especially, can feel productive—but it isn’t. It’s just energy looping with nowhere to go. But it can be useful if you let it become a signal instead of a spiral.

To me, worry is a call to prayer.

And if prayer isn’t your word, call it intention. Call it focus. Call it setting a goal. Because for your brain, those things aren’t very different. You’re directing your attention, telling your system what matters, giving it something to organize around.

Left alone, worry keeps you stuck. Given direction, it can actually move you.

Complaining works the same way. It feels like you’re engaging with something, but really it’s just taking up space—in your head or out in the world—without changing anything.

The shift is simple, even if it’s not easy: move from complaint to solution.

What’s actually wrong? What would better look like? What’s one step that moves you closer to that?

Those questions have weight. They go somewhere.

And underneath all of this is something even more important: these aren’t just thoughts, they’re habits. Your brain will keep offering you whatever you’ve practiced most. Not because it’s good for you, but because it’s efficient.

So the work isn’t just to stop—it’s to replace.

Worry becomes intention.
Complaint becomes action.

Again and again, until something new starts to feel natural.

That’s how change actually happens.

So starting today, what would it look like to live a little differently?

When worry shows up, turn it into something directed—prayer, intention, a goal you can name and move toward.

When complaint shows up, let it point you toward what needs to change, and take one small step in that direction.

That’s it. Nothing dramatic. Just a different use of your energy.

My prayer for you today is that you choose new habits this spring. That you redirect your attention toward what builds something real. And that, in doing so, you make your world—and the world around you—a little better through your actions, your intentions, and your very human capacity to create, dream up, and thereby make— worlds.