You have to know something about me. I have really long arms…a family trait. There is so much distance between my brain and my finger tips that sometimes the signals don’t move fast enough and I’ll knock something over, reach for something and miss it, or drop something. Some people call it being clumsy; I say that I am “neural-distance challenged.” Okay, I’m a klutz. But, it is what it is.
So here is what it is like for me:
At Starbucks, I was adding some sugar to my coffee. As I intended to put the cover back on the cup, I pushed too hard on one side and the entire cup of coffee spilled – into the supply of napkins and straws.
I am on a ladder changing the light bulb in the fixture by the front door. As I unscrew the screws holding the globe onto the fixture, I drop them into the bushes – never to be seen again.
I make a protein shake for breakfast. The fruit and juice are in the blender and all I have to do is add the protein powder. I take a tablespoon of protein powder and, instead of dumping it into the blender, I bump the side of the blender with the spoon and the powder goes everywhere.
You get the picture.
Why tell you this, other than looking for sympathy? It is to share something about how to react when these events happen.
So, as a card-carrying klutz, here is my advice: Just laugh. Really, just laugh.
Sure, you could curse (I did that for lots of years). You can even scream or make up horrible sounding words (also did that). But at the end I was more upset, not less. My day could get ruined not by the klutz move, but by my response to it.
Try to laugh the next time you act like a human – you drop, spill, spray or lose something. Give one of your best, deepest laughs. Laugh until you don’t feel the need to be upset. You’ll notice in the instant that you feel better. You can then determine how to fix what might now need fixing and can do it calmly and with greater clarity.
Here are some meaningful stats. Pre-schoolers laugh or smile 400 times a day. Adults (35 and older) laugh or smile 15 times a day. We apparently don’t see the humor in being human. I know that if I laughed every time I did something that I would have previously cursed about, I’d be close to the pre-schooler statistic.
Don’t take yourself so seriously. A great life is a happy life – one that accepts you as you are and does not expect you to be perfect. There are times when we get the details exactly right. And then there are times when we stumble, trip, spill or break things. It comes with being human. And when it happens, just laugh.
