After my day of imploring everyone who would listen that we all needed to lighten up and have a little more fun, I woke up to a brilliant comment on Facebook this morning:

“I tend to be serious, because I grew up with serious parents. When I act silly, my family thinks I’m crazy.”

It reminded me of how, on pretty much a daily basis, my husband will roll his eyes or sigh as I do a silly dance but you know what?

I don’t care! 😀

Ten years ago I would have done. Even 5 years ago maybe.

But today, I am who I am and even the people I love dearly can take it or leave it.

Take it he does of course and, more often than not, I can tease him into giggling along with me. It’s easy! I’m not playing pretend. I’m just being me.

But when you’re first trying this out, it can feel a little bit like acting. As if you’re putting on a character or playing a part.

I don’t want that for you. I want you to be you.

The ‘made in the image of God’ you that he created you to be.

Sometimes though, it can be hard to know what’s you and what’s your parents or your friends or your spouse.

Jim Rohn said:

“You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.”

If that’s true, not only do you want to make sure you spend lots of time with people who best reflect the person you want to be, but if you’ve been spending time with your fairly serious family members, it stands to reason that you’re going to become more and more like them.

But you know what?

You’re not them!

I have nothing against serious people of course. Even serious people have a funny bone hidden in there somewhere, just waiting to be scratched or tickled.

As I write that, I’m reminded of my granddad You’d have met him and thought it was a pretty serious guy but I can see his laughing face in my head right now.

My dad’s another one. He can sit silently in his own head for hours at a time, pondering the world you might think, but put him as host at a party and you’ll find him entertaining and sparkling.

‘Funny’ looks different for different people. It’s about finding who you are. What lights you up. Your quirks, foibles and eccentricities.

Don’t squash and hide that stuff. That stuff is what makes you you and it’s brilliant!

You don’t have to do it all at once.

If you’ve been serious for a long time, just take 5 minutes today to do something a little different. Stretch that funny muscle. Take it for a spin around the block and see how it fits.

And if you want to start really small, try wearing odd socks. You can keep those covered up if you want to, but you’ll know you’re doing it and it’ll help make it a little bit easier the next time.

Go on, I dare you! 😉