Confessions of a Recovering Serious Person

Why do we take ourselves so seriously all the time? Trust me – I was a professional at it. If there had been an Olympic sport for “serious face,” I would have taken home the gold.

For years, I carried a strict personality that I thought was about being reliable, respected, in control. (Spoiler: it was mostly about control.) What I didn’t realize was how much it weighed on the people around me. My seriousness wasn’t neutral – it spread, like an invisible dress code: “Welcome, please adjust your facial expression to match mine.”

When I finally let a little lightness in, things shifted.
Situations became easier to carry.
The people around me relaxed.
And instead of bleeding energy into tension, I actually got it back.

That’s the hidden power of self-distance. When you can laugh at yourself – even a little – you break the spell. Humor doesn’t make the problem less important. It makes you less stuck. And from there, solutions show up that you’d never see with clenched jaws and furrowed brows.

For me, this has been one of the most surprising lessons in leadership (and in life). Letting go of the need to be the most serious person in the room made me more human – and strangely enough, more effective.

Shift Section: Where could you swap a little tension for a little humor – without losing the weight of what matters?

Let’s unlock the next evolution together.