Keeping a sense of humor

Life is always challenging and often difficult. It doesn’t matter who you are. Affluent people have some aspects of life easier than others. But, as long as you do everything that humans do, you’re going to experience challenges and difficulties.

The big question, then, is – what do we do? Or, more specifically, do we react or respond?

When we take responsibility for our lives, we learn that there’s a space between what happens to us and what we do about it. That space between stimulus and response is where wisdom and maturity lie. Maturity and our ability to respond to situations, not just react to them, go together. Maturity and this ability to respond bring perspective. And, perspective, in turn, changes how we see these challenges and difficulties.

I’ve often wondered if there’s a shortcut to perspective.

There isn’t, of course. Not in the way we think of shortcuts – life doesn’t deal with narrow alleyways.

But, keeping a sense of humor is a trait I’ve found particularly helpful in ensuring perspective. Humor has a magical ability to bring perspective to any situation.

I am not naturally pre-disposed to humor as I grew up taking things very seriously. But, years of perspective and being surrounded by a couple of people who looked for the humor in the situation has slowly changed me. I’ve realized over the years that we all take our thoughts too damn seriously. Nearly everything that happens to us isn’t a matter of life and death.

So, we should relax, find reasons to smile and, in that process, get perspective.

I still don’t naturally find humor in most situation. But, I’ve begun looking for it. That’s been a game changer and I’m hoping I continue to do that.