How To Laugh More And Enjoy The Life You Live
As I walked the hall of the office, I saw him. A new team member was creeping my corridor with a frown.
“What’s wrong?” I asked.
He gently remarked, “everything is fine.”
“Okay, if you want to talk, I'm here!”
As I brewed some coffee in our Sky Lounge, he peeked in and whispered, "I don't smile much. It's something I've been trying to work on."
Nobody does that, I thought. An honest, vocal admittance of an area they need to work on, and I respect it a ton.
It helps me understand his personality, so my functional managers and I can lead and coach him in a way that makes sense.
I told him I'd help him work on it.
Laughing is a disease. The infected are light-hearted, happy, and genuine.
They don't take life so seriously.
Their laugh is born from a spark of joy. It's not a hyena laugh. One that's fake, forced, and wicked. You know the people I’m talking about.
It's genuine. Like a loud bellow from the soul.
My older sister laughs this way. You can hear her laugh in the next state.
Laughter is recognized in any language. Any culture.
As we get "older," our brains are hijacked by biases, manipulations, persuasion, and habits.
We begin to laugh less. It’s sad.
What we need to do is bring our childlike brain back. Here's how.
Don't take life so seriously.
"Heraclitus would shed tears whenever he went out in public—Democritus laughed. One saw the whole as a parade of miseries, the other of follies. And so, we should take a lighter view of things and bear them with an easy spirit, for it is more human to laugh at life than to lament it." —SENECA, ON TRANQUILITY OF MIND, 15.2
We walk around the world, thinking life owes us.
It doesn't.
You're a speck of dust. A freckle of the cosmos.
Life doesn't care if you're dead or alive. Life will keep moving forward, doing its life thing.
That's why you shouldn't take life so seriously. You're not so serious.
Enjoy every second you're breathing.
Did you have a tough day at work?
Laugh about it. Find humor. Learn from it.
Be grateful for something in the experience.
Did you and your spouse have a heated disagreement?
In the past, if I were upset, I would show it on my face and how I acted. I still will, especially if I'm tired.
Bad sleep is my Achilles tendon. It's likely yours too.
I'll often ask myself, "why the f$ am I acting like this? Get over it."
According to the article, Change Your Words, Change Your Life…
How you speak to yourself directly influences how you experience things in life. If your internal self-talk is negative, chances are that your external experiences will be negative as well.
Transformational Vocabulary gives you the power to change your experiences in life by lowering the intensity of negative emotions to the point where they no longer control you. It can also be used to take positive experiences and increase them to even greater heights of pleasure.
Play, play and play some more.
How often do you "play" in a day?
Several years ago, I would wake up early to begin working, go to work, work, come home, finish work, study for my MBA, and go to bed.
Doing this impacted how I lived my life, how creative I was, and frankly, my overall happiness.
I didn't understand it at the time.
I thought playing was the spoil of progress. I was stuck in the day-to-day.
It's the opposite.
Playing sparks creativity, joy, fun, exercise, and many great things you need in a happy and fulfilling life.
My mom and CFO is in the same situation right now. She's stuck chasing and coordinating many of our projects. Sixteen hour days are "normal."
She's busy in the day-to-day and can't elevate beyond it to find inefficiencies, update strategies, holding progress meetings, and the list goes on.
We all get stuck in the day-to-day and neglect the things that will have more meaning in our life and career.
Playing reduces tension. Which for my mom, right now, my two sons are her "cure."
Joke around with others.
There's a saying in my family that if we tease and pick on you, we care about you.
It's true. You joke around with people you care about.
Joking is a common occurrence between my younger sister and I. We'll get in debates about every aspect of life and tease each other about our views.
Or if we say something stupid, it's time to attack.
The same is true in my office.
When you joke around, you lower your guard, have fun, and connect with other people.
Right now, I'm getting harassed about a drinking story that happened many years ago at an industry function. Not my brightest moment, but a funny story.
Or I'll pop out of a corner to scare someone walking out of the bathroom, or, as it happened at one time, race someone going pee, and splashing water all over my pants, so it looked like I peed myself when I came out.
It's time to joke around more and lighten the mood.
Crack a joke in an important meeting to reduce the tension, make your client laugh, tease a coworker about something silly they said, and laugh about it together.