Get Your Funny Bone Back

  Larry Wilde instituted National Humor Month as a reminder for people to lighten up and ease their stress.  Stress can skew our perspective on what is happening and wear us down to the point where we lose track of who we are, where we are going, and what is really important.    Our ability to find the humor in things can help give us the much needed respite from our stressors - enabling us to cope, gain perspective, and keep the main thing the main thing.  Like most, I have had times where I lost my sense of humor due to the stressors of life (it was behind the couch the whole time).       

  As a mid-grade Naval Officer, I got assigned as the Director of Security for Naval District, Washington, DC.  I was stationed there right before the USS Cole was struck by terrorists and was there through 9/11/2001 (and about a year afterwards).   This was the most stressful job I had ever had.  My workforce was short, funding was shorter, and the tasks to be done were numerous.  Most days, I left my house at 3:30AM and didn't get home until late.    Even while at home, I was still consumed by what I all of the things I  had to get done and  everything that wasn't getting done. These were very serious times and, yes, I lost my fun factor.  Even acquaintances would mention to my wife that I had lost my sense of humor.   Upon hearing this (and being concerned), she mentioned what they had said but I was too busy to worry about it.  I had a job to do, people to lead and 25K people on 9 Naval Installations in the National Capital Region that counted on me to ensure their safety.  Yes, I had become "that guy" - the one who takes himself and his work WAY to seriously.  This lasted for nearly a year until, one day, my wife called me and said: 
   
  "I overheard the kids upstairs planning a mutiny.  They were talking amongst themselves and said that they were tired of you being gone and working all of the time and they were going to give you one more week to get it together or they were leaving."

   I stopped, thought a moment, and then started laughing.  The thought of those little boogers planning a mutiny (in my head they were wearing little pirate hats and carrying wooden swords (one had a peg leg)) is what brought me back from the depths of seriousness.  They helped me get the perspective on what was going on in my life.  I had plunged deep but all it took was a really good laugh to get me back on track to recovering who I really am.  Granted, it took a lot to get back into their good graces (not really, children are pretty forgiving) but soon we were as thick as "peas and carrots" again. 

  If you've lost your sense of humor, look around - funny things are everywhere!

Each of us has a story.  Reach out and share them with the people around you.  If the walls are up, a humorous story will help break them down - when people are laughing they're listening!

Keep Leading, Laughing, and Connecting,
Chip