January 5, 2026
Do not take life too seriously. You will never get out of it alive.
Elbert Hubbard
In a recent meeting, I smiled as I admitted guilt about falling short of a standard we had set earlier. I laughed at my mistake. One of the participants noted my reaction — my ownership of the behavior, but more importantly, how I could laugh at myself about it. The light-heartedness of it. She later remarked that she appreciated the ego-less response.
If I could add an agreement to Don Miguel Ruiz’s excellent list of four, it would be this: Don’t take yourself too seriously. I used to take myself too seriously all the time — at work, at home, during play. I even bit my brother during a friendly basketball game with our church priest. Yes, I was that serious. But that seriousness caused more suffering than I’d like to admit. It led me to feelings of unworthiness, regret, and self-punishment — all of which didn’t serve me in any meaningful way, and only led to a vicious cycle of further lament.
Here’s the thing: you can be serious about life, but at the same time, not take yourself too seriously. You’re fallible. You’re going to screw up. You’re only human, after all. I have found that reminding myself of my imperfection allows me to see things with more light, more grace, more self-compassion. That lightness allows me to float through, with a kind of peace and confidence that it all unfolds as it should — so why not let it go, and let yourself laugh about it?