If you trip in the hallway, laugh first. You get to own the moment before anyone else writes it.

Whoever reacts first sets the meaning of what just happened. If you laugh, it becomes a funny thing you did; if you freeze and go red, it becomes a story somebody else gets to tell. The event is identical and the interpretation is up for grabs for roughly two seconds.

Decide now that you will take those two seconds, because there is no deciding in the moment. Laugh, say something short, keep walking. The same move works for a wrong answer in class and a dropped tray at work, and the practice carries from one to the next.