Stay in 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.

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.

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
the problem is me?"

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.

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Some Humor for the Week

"When you're a kid, it's so easy to have
fun. What do you need? A book of matches,
some oily rags, a little brother?"
Dave Attell