Can you find humor in your shortcomings, mistakes, and idiosyncrasies? Are you in touch with your “inner idiot”? If you are, you will be much more pleasant to live with and to work with.
Years ago when my children were young we had a family trip to Disney World. As one would expect the park was jammed with people. While we were figuring out what attraction to see next we noticed a man with an eastern European accent yelling in my direction. He seemed to be yelling the number 88. I said to my kids, “Why is that man yelling ‘88’ at me?” Then suddenly I noticed that I had unwittingly gotten myself in the line of a family picture he was attempting to take. One of my sons said, “Dad, he’s not yelling ’88,’ he’s yelling, ‘Idiot!’”
I quickly scrambled away and my family and I had a great laugh and they called me “Mr. 88″ the rest of the afternoon. “88” became a family code whenever I did or said something that missed the mark. And I was just fine with that. I wanted my children to learn that if you can laugh at yourself you’re in a great place in life and little slights and offenses don’t have the stinging power they might otherwise have. I call it being in touch with our “inner idiot.” We all do and say silly things and it’s just fine to have some fun at our own expense.
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