How To Maintain Control Of Your Attitude...Even During A Mutiny

It would've been hard to blame Captain William Bligh for having a bad attitude. Bligh was the Captain of the H.M.S. Bounty and was famously mutinied by his crew. But Captain Bligh was resilient enough to make me think he must've used the amazing power of humor to full effect. I'll explain why in a moment...

Your attitude is nothing to take for granted. I know because I used to take mine for granted!

Imagine me as a 25 year old medical intern (circa 1967) and stuck on an insane emergency room rotation: 36 hours on and 12 hours off. I was losing my mind from lack of sleep, job pressure, and not being home to help my young wife take care of my screaming infant son, Greg.

"I don't know if I can make this work," I complained to my mentor one evening over yet another cup of bad, break room coffee. "I hate this job."

My mentor's response was like a slap to my face. "Well, Cliff, how is that attitude working for you? Are you enjoying it?"

"What do you mean?", I shot back, "Look at my life! Are you implying that I'm responsible for my frustration?"

"That's exactly what I'm saying," my mentor calmly replied at he refilled his coffee cup, "You are."

I wish I could tell you that I began to take responsibility for my attitude from that point. In fact, what happened is that I quickly got a new mentor. I wasn't ready to accept responsibility for my attitudes until I fully understood the amazing power of humor's natural medicine almost 25 years later.

You, too, may be hesitant to accept control of your attitudes. You may occasionally feel more comfortable playing the role of the victim, pretending that your attitudes are an uncontrollable byproduct of your environment and circumstances. The good news is...nothing could be further from the truth.

You have full control over your attitudes. This is great news; you are not a victim! And your humor nature will help you take control of them in such grand style that you may never be unhappy again.

How do you take control of your attitude? It's easy to talk about, but how do you do it? The solution is simple and it's one of my newest Fun Commandments: Become a Humor Propmaster.

Would a director stage a theatrical production without props? Of course not. A good propmaster inspires the audience with her product, adding vibrancy and realism to what would be dull and bland. Why would you stage your day with props? Without humor props, you have something much worse than a bland production, you have deadly seriousness and stress.

A humor prop is anything which brings a smile, banishes your seriousness, lightens your mood, or reminds you to take yourself lightly. If you make a commitment to become a humor propmaster and surround yourself with humor props, you will find yourself with fewer negative attitudes. Because humor props are your reminders to take yourself less seriously.

Do "serious," "somber," and "heavy" sound like the recipe for success in life? Compared to "creative," "resilient," and "light"? Not by a long shot. You can have the later list today when you begin your collection of humor props.

Some of my favorite humor props include fun or funny calendars, socks, ties, underwear, emails, and cartoons. And, of course, a clown nose. I don't wear my clown nose all the time, but it's always in my pocket, reminding me to quit taking slow traffic, jammed copy machines, and credit card bills so seriously.

And this brings me to the best part about your amazingly powerful collection of humor props. They don't need to be funny, expensive, or even visible to anyone else. You only need your humor prop to be available to you, reminding you to lighten up and get back on your road to success through fun and humor.

Captain Bligh, by the way, was not finished with humiliation after his crew mutinied on the H.M.S. Bounty. Oh no, believe it or not, Bligh's new crew mutinied against him just ten years later and he was mutinied against while governor of New South Wales, Australia. After that third mutiny, don't you think he had to muse, "Gee, I wonder if I'm the problem?"

I hope your humor props don't need to steer you through such an attitude wrecker as a third mutiny. Until next week, please let me know what your favorite humor props are.


Cliff Kuhn, M.D.
The Laugh Doctor
"it all starts with a SMILE"

The Natural Medicine of Humor
"Discover a unique, FREE, and incredibly powerful prescription created out of desperation by a (formerly) stressed-out Kentucky psychiatrist"

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