Laugh It Off

Thought this was a great article and wanted to share:

Laugh It Off - When the going gets serious, the serious get goofy

by by Diane G. Kulisek


Health benefitsMany studies and articles have been published about the benefits of laughter and humor when managing people or projects, or when trying to overcome the potentially destructive impacts of stress. One such article revealed that laughter reduces the level of anxiety-related hormones (such as epinephrine/adrenaline and cortisol), while increasing the levels of health-enhancing hormones like endorphins and neurotransmitters.1 Laughter provides an emotionally cleansing release and a physical workout for your lungs, diaphragm and abdominal muscles, along with the tension relief associated with tightening and then relaxing your neck and shoulder muscles.

The same report indicates that laughter distracts us from the negative feelings associated with stress (dread, guilt, helplessness) and helps us improve our perspectives so failures and problems can be viewed more as challenges and opportunities. Not only that, laughter is a bonding experience. You can increase your social support network through group laughter. Laughter is also, thankfully, very contagious.

Contrary to the somewhat dour image quality practitioners sometimes seem to portray, I believe a bunch of us actually have quite a bit of fun doing the serious work we do and, accordingly, we laugh a lot. I admit it is a survival tactic, but all things considered, it seems to work pretty well.

To test my theory somewhat superficially, I asked an incisive question about tough situations to bring out the humor of quality practitioners within my LinkedIn network.2

I asked, "What is your favorite analogy to express how difficult a task is? Within a day, I had nearly 100 answers from workplace humorists all over the globe.

A Pareto chart of the results might have been interesting because there were duplications, but I decided sharing the responses with you sorted by category of applicability would be more fun and, possibly, more practical. So, take a look.

I can confidently sum up this Career Corner column by saying, yes, quality practitioners can (and do) get goofy. Still, if you feel as though you might be among the laughter-challenged, there is help available, such as www.laughteryoga.org and www.worldlaughtertour.com

In closing, I will leave you with this classic quote about laughter from Ralph Waldo Emerson: "To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children ... to leave the world a better place ... to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded."4