OK, I know that’s easier said than done…But how do we make a lousy situation a little better?

I was sharing this concept with my friend, Emma, this morning. She was having a hard time dealing with her boss, Bob, because he is, in a word, incompetent and she ends up picking up the pieces and doing most of the work. I said that if she found a way to refer to him differently then maybe she could think about him differently. And thinking about a problem in a new way is getting closer to solve it.

So she decided to call him Bob…Blob. As soon as she started ranting about him as Blob, it was far funnier. We got on a roll. Annoying neighbors called Russell became the Fuss-ell Family because they complain about everything. A former boyfriend whose last name was Radecki was transformed into…you got it, Badecki.

I know it sounds simplistic and silly but it follows the maxim, “If we change the way we look at things, the things we look at change.” This is one step at least toward accepting things we can’t change – and that’s half the battle!

Did you try this? Did it help you deal with a problem situation?