LEARN TO LAUGH “WITH” YOURSELF
I owned a personal & professional development school in Alabama for 12 years before moving to Florida. I used to tell my students “when you wake up in the morning, put a smile on your face and say out loud, IT’S A GREAT DAY AND I AM A BEAUTIFUL PERSON!!” Now I always warned them….don’t look in the mirror first because that bed hair can really scare you!
Try it tomorrow morning. It can shift your attitude for the entire day. I don’t care if you are a young teen or an old grumpy grandpa it will change your attitude. You just can’t say that with a smile on your face and not laugh. It just makes you happy even if you are attempting sarcasm.
Laughter is good for the soul and we all need to learn to laugh WITH ourselves. Too many people make mistakes and then get mad because others are laughing about it. They think people are laughing AT them and their self-esteem goes down the toilet and suddenly nothing else matters. Their attitude turns sour or they shut down. They live in “perfection hell”.
When you can learn to laugh WITH yourself – laugh WITH others at stupid things you might do, life will be a much happier place for you. I have a group of girlfriends we call “The Twisted Sisters”. They are my best friends in life – the ones you know you can always count on. On this one particular canoeing venture, I boldly commented that “I know how to do it – I used to teach canoeing”. I failed to tell them it was at Girl Scout camp 45 years ago and I hadn’t been in a canoe since!
You know what happened next….the minute I got in that canoe I flipped it over dumping all the supplies in the water along with myself and my girlfriend. The rest of the trip was a continuum of that story. They were belly laughing and so was I. To this day, years later, they still tease me about “teaching canoeing” and it is still as funny today as it was then. It was a stupid thing for me to say because I knew nothing about canoeing!!
Point is, I could have gotten mad, gotten my feelings hurt and let it ruin my day or I could have done what I did and just laughed about it with myself and with my friends for all these years. That famous statement will forever be a metaphor used anytime someone in our group thinks they know how to do something. We made a life memory that day – actually we made a lot of life memories that day but we will save those for another story!
Can you learn to laugh WITH yourself? Repeat after me: IT’S A GREAT DAY AND I AM A BEAUTIFUL PERSON…..IT’S A GREAT DAY AND I AM A BEAUTIFUL PERSON….say it every day for the next 21 days as you put your feet on the ground in the morning (it takes 21 days to create a habit). You will begin to really believe it and live it and you will start your day off laughing WITH yourself instead of AT yourself.
When is the last time you laughed WITH yourself?
Related articles
- Never Stop Laughing (tadams4u.wordpress.com)
- Laughter is the Best Medicine (judithmcguinness.wordpress.com)
Peggy is a life coach, motivational speaker & corporate trainer. She blogs about personal thoughts & experiences, professional development, leadership, making choices and more. She promises to inspire and motivate you to grow as an individual and as a leader in life. She is President of Brockman Enterprises, Inc. and is a Certified Speaker, Trainer & Coach with The John Maxwell Team.
Follow This Coach 
Laughing at yourself relieves a lot of stress. But as you say, you have to catch yourself ‘after the canoe’ dumps you. John Maxwell said it “Attitude defines Environment, Environment defines outcomes.” Laughing at yourself does that for me when I’m taking myself too serious. Thanks for your writing wake up call.
Reblogged this on Eagle Wings Soaring.
This is a really uplifting post. I agree that starting off the day with a positive statement can really set the tone for a good day, no matter what it may throw at you. Personally, I will try and list at least 1 thing I’m looking forward to today even if it’s something small or silly like going out for my favorite lunch or wearing a new outfit.
Pingback: Call Me Maybe- Just Makes Me Happy!! It Is The Perfect Song For Summer! Sometimes We Just Need To Laugh! Just Purchased On I Tunes! Psalms 118-24 This is the day that the Lord has made; « Taking On A Cause by Patsy McCaw-Yager,Englewood, Fl.
I remember that day well. And many other equally funny days with you, Peggy. Thanks for teaching me to appreciate the value of a good laugh. It can get you through almost anything. The Twisted Sisters have helped me get through so much, including cancer and the loss of my husband of 42 years.
Pingback: best thing in life | THE GIRL NAMED KIZZY
You are so on target. If you are the first to laugh at yourself, you will be so much happier in life. I”m a big fan of laughing every day.