The ability to laugh at your own flaws,weaknesses and blunders has long been recognized as a sign of maturity. As Eleanor Roosevelt put it,"You don't grow up until you have your first good laugh at yourself."And yet this is one of the most difficult aspects of your sense of humor to develop. It's easy to see the humor in someone else's blunders or flaws, but it's another story when the same thing happens to us. That's why we've put off working on this part of your sense of humor until you've already established some good humor skills in areas that have nothing to do with laughing at yourself.

(很久以来，嘲笑自己缺点、弱点和失误的能力被认为是成熟的标志。正如伊琳娜*罗斯福所说："当你第一次痛快地嘲笑自己一番时，你便长大了。"然而，这是幽默感中最难培养的一点。笑看别人的失误和缺点很容易，但当自己有同样的失误和缺点时，那就是另一回事儿了。这就是为何我们在掌握了其他幽默技巧后，才着手培养自嘲的原因。)

Oscar Wilde once offered a valuable insight about the way we live our lives when he said that"Life is too important to be taken seriously." What do you think he meant by this? I don't think he meant you don't have to take your responsibilities,promises,work,etc. seriously. He didn't mean that it's OK to live life with no integrity. I think he meant that the quality of our life suffers when we approach everything in a serious manner. We lose the aliveness,joy and spontaneity we had when we were kids when we take everything so seriously--especially when we take ourselves so seriously.

(奥斯卡*王尔德对我们的生活方式曾有过很有价值的观察，他说："生活太重要了，我们不能太认真。"你认为他这样说意义何在？我想他并非说你不必认真承担责任、工作和对待承诺等，也不是说可以做不正直的人。我认为他是指：当我们严肃对待每件事时，生活质量就会受影响。当我们一本正经对待一切--尤其是对待自己时，我们便丧失了孩提时所拥有的活泼、快乐和自然天性。)

I think the key here is to take your work and your responsibility seriously,but take yourself lightly in the proccess. When you take yourself seriously all the time,you will lose many benefits that a playful attitude and humor can offer.

(我想这里的关键是要认真对待你的工作和责任，但在此过程中要轻松对待自己。当你总跟自己太认真时，你会失去愉快态度和幽默带给你的许多好处。)
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