The exercise for this week may already be clear: Whenever someone tries to insult or offend you, either act as if it didn’t happen, or add some self-deprecating humor to the mix! The trick is to remember to do it in the moment. You’ll practice using implementation intentions and mental rehearsal.

Use one or both of these techniques every morning for the next week. Before you begin your day, look ahead and see if there may be situations in which you will be insulted. If there are, mentally rehearse not responding, or responding with self-deprecating humor. Run through the scenario a few times. Try to visualize the entire experience as if it were actually happening. If you can’t think of any situations in which you are likely to be insulted, take a few moments to generate an implementation intention or two to remember how to respond if someone does insult you. Repeat them to yourself a few times to let them sink in. Write down the scenario(s) in which you may be insulted or the implementation intention to help remember how to respond.

Self-deprecating humor allows you to take yourself less seriously while also acknowledging your faults. Scientific evidence even suggests that self-deprecating humor is correlated with increased well-being and happiness.² In addition, by stepping back from the insult you may be able to extract constructive criticism and use the occasion to learn and grow. And not reacting can help you act calmly and rationally, helping further your practice of the Discipline of Action.

How did your week of rolling with insults go? Did mental rehearsal and setting implementation intentions help you remember how to respond to insults? You may not have found that you’ve been insulted this week; in that case, do you think this exercise would have been useful if you had been? Write your thoughts down about this exercise.