Ten Things You May Be Doing Wrong When Creating Content - Part 1

"Ten Things You May Be Doing Wrong When Creating Content & Presenting Programs" is a series of brief blogs you can use to make yourself more valuable and more memorable to your clients, and to differentiate yourself in the marketplace. These are in no particular order; they all are important.

#1 Not using your own talents America's got talent, how about you?

Can you recite a poem, sing, play a musical instrument, tap dance, or juggle?
Have you memorized poetry or prose that is inspiring or informative?
Could you compose & perform a song parody, or invite the audience to join you in singing it?

Using the natural talents that you have developed to performance level, will make your programs more valuable and more memorable to your clients, and will differentiate you in the marketplace of presenters.

A minister revealed to me that in seminary school he was taught this simple formula for creating a sermon: Three Points and a Poem. I suggest a slight revision: Three Points and Your Talent.

You don't have to be a professional at your talent. Amateur is fine. You may want to get some coaching to craft something for inclusion in your program.

Enumerate your talents. Don't be bashful. Figure out which one(s) you can use to get your point(s) across. Don't make it "The All About Me Show", but use just enough talent-based content to amp up the value of your program a few notches.

Don't brag, just launch right into it. Don't brag about your talents because those are gifts of creation. They came with the territory. You didn't do anything to merit them.  What you can take credit for is what you do by way of developing those talents. And, even more, how you use those talents to help other people face life's challenges, achieve their aspirations, or just enjoy life.

You may have had formal training in some talent, but mine were developed mostly as hobbies, but I stuck with them and fine-tuned them. When I became a professional speaker, I realized I could use them for more than entertaining at family reunions. I could help people remember and be inspired to try making some lifestyle or work style changes. It helps that my audiences are more likely to stay awake and pay attention.

For example, my promotional material says, "To inform and enlighten his audiences, Steve Wilson intertwines substance and humor in ways you would never imagine from dazzling mental magic to expert level yo-yo-ing, to performance pieces." In this video clip I prove the point with a theatrical piece from "The Court Jester" that makes a great set-up for substantive content about applied and therapeutic humor & laughter for a professional audience.

Don't entertain just for the sake of entertaining. Balancing a folding chair on your chin might be impressive at a birthday party, but it is merely gratuitous unless you can clearly connect it to your content in the minds of your clients.

Your talents are your gifts. Use them in behalf of delivering programs with greater interest and benefits. It will pay off all the way around.

Nine more mistakes will be explained in future blogs. Stay tuned. Subscribe to this blog and share this with everyone who might need to be aware.

A Response to Violence

Is It Really?

Today I am reading entries on Facebook from some laughter/humor colleagues asserting that yesterday’s shootings at an elementary school are proof that we need more laughter. Here’s one, "If we'd laugh more, there would be less violence, wars, fight... and we all laughed... really hard..."

Oh, my!

I am reminded of the man in an early documentary video about laughter in India. His cure for the troubles of the world, “Laughter alone is the solution!”

Oh, my!

A good argument could be made that laughter, humor, and mirth have survival value. But, “laughter alone” is hardly the solution.

What image do such assertions project about the mission, passion, and work of World Laughter Tour, its thousands of members, and others who form the loosely organized laughter movement? Over-simplified short-hand figures of speech can be easily misinterpreted, and portray the movement as seemingly not very thoughtful, perhaps even overly zealous for laughter.

I urge you, my readers and members of the World Laughter Tour, to project a more reflective and considered position. One that appreciates complexity, but is not deterred from ideals.

Situations and events have multiple causalities.

For instance, when we seek to foster a dozen new intergenerational laughter programs next year, or next February, when I present a program of classroom activities and support for caregivers in early childhood education, or when we promote laughing toys for kids, it is not because we believe that laughter is the only best medicine.

A Tool, Not the Whole Toolbox

Laughter is like an electric drill, a tool that delivers a desired result: a hole in the right place at the right time. It is not the whole toolbox. When the Beatles sang “All You Need Is Love,” that was a figure of speech.  We recognize that love is an action verb, not merely feel-good emotion.

What we call laughter programs encompass tools and experiences for more positive emotions and attitudes (emotional education); positive engagement with life and positive relationships, through Good-Hearted Living, for example. We synthesize evidence-based information from science, Positive Psychology, and ancient practices, in clinical, educational, consulting, corporate, and volunteer work.

We help individuals use life energies to choose and modify their life and work directions. We help individuals identify emotional and attitudinal factors, many of which can be self-administered practices that improve health and increase life satisfaction and well-being for clients, patients, residents, students, employee, and others.

And, yes, we have fun doing it.

What's so funny? Sometimes, we can't exactly explain why we are laughing. That's OK. But, my over-riding mission is to give people good reasons to laugh such as a good job, reasonable income, healthcare, adequate food, freedom from pain and fear and chaos. Now, that's a world you can live with. To get ideas for love-in-action, please re-read "FULL-BELLY LAUGHTER" and pass it on.

We can imagine a better world. And, anything we can imagine we can make happen.

The advice that medical researcher Dr. Lee Berk so generously offered to me at the beginning of the World Laughter Tour, I now offer to you, “Don’t ever get discouraged. You are doing the right thing.”

Steve

You may say that I’m a dreamer...

You may say that I’m a dreamer
But I’m not the only one
I hope someday you’ll join us
And the world will be as one
"Imagine" by John Lennon

I need your help. Thank you in advance, my dear blog readers.

Actually, I am trying to enlist you in furthering the mission of the World Laughter Tour: Together, we can lead the world to health, happiness, and peace through laughter.

The operative word here is TOGETHER. I can't do it alone.

Did you know that the logo of World Laughter Tour is called The Happy World?

Happy World

Thousands of individuals around the world are already carrying the mission forward. One of the ways we are doing this is by encouraging people everywhere to try my program called Good-Hearted Living(tm) [GHL].

GHL is the most WONDERFUL, POWERFUL method I have ever discovered for improving life satisfaction and well-being. Put into daily practice, people find they have more positive attitudes, more positive emotions, and more positive interactions with others. In other word, greater life satisfaction and well-being. This, in turn, greatly increase the likelihood of having more laughter in their lives, which brings a multitude of benefits for mind, body, and soul.

And, you can be part of the movement, too. Especially if know someone who is fluent in a language other than English.

First, a word about THANK YOU. One of the six parts of the program is the practice of gratitude.

My friend, Nekane DeLeniz, whom I met in Caracas, is beautiful spiritual teacher, a woman both wise and smart, with a heart of gold. She posted this on Facebook:

It inspired me to search for THANK YOU in other languages. With help from friends (and computer technology), I have been able to put together this list:

Bedankt (Dutch)
Ank-thay Ou-yay (Pig Latin)
Masha danki (Papiamento )
Todah rabbah (Hebrew)
grazie mille (Italian)
Sapcibo (Russian)
Dankon (Esperanto)
Diakuju (Ukrainian)
cume on (Vietnamese)
Arigato (Japanese)
Tak dig (Danish)
Kiitos (Finnish)
efharisto (Greek)
Takk deg (Norwegian)
Obrigado (Brazilian Portuguese)
Mahusu mahuyu (Guajiro)
Size Teşekkür Ederiz (Turkish)
Na gode (Hausa)
شكرا لك Shukran (shoe-cron) (Arabic)
感谢您 (Xie Xie: Chinese)
Σας ευχαριστώ (Greek)
आपको धन्यवाद देता हूं। (Hindi)
감사합니다. (Korean)
ขอขอบคุณที่คุณ (Thai)

Here's where you come in. You can help raise the GRATITUDE consciousness of people around the world by adding to the THANK YOU list (send me you additions, please) and distributing it everywhere.

Here's something else we can all do. Through the kindness of friends, the basic instructions for the GHL program have been translated into English, Mexican Spanish, Chilean Spanish, Dutch, French, German, Hungarian, Italian, and Japanese. Nancy Jones even created a kid version. I have put them all into a single pdf file that you can have and you can distribute.

Copyright Disclaimer: Under Section 107 of the Copyright Act 1976, allowance is made for "fair use" for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing. Non-profit, educational or personal use tips the balance in favor of fair use.

If you can help us get this translated into even more languages, we can touch even more lives and further the mission of a healthier, happier, and more peaceful --and laughter-filled-- world. Do you know someone who would translate this? Simply send them the file and have them send me their translation. They may contact me with any questions. I will keep posting the additional translations for you to distribute. Soon, the world will look like this:

I'm just saying...imagine...

Steve

PS I recently recorded a one-hour Webinar about GHL. You can get it, along with myriad extras such as videos, the slide images, and articles.

 

Funny Fridays! Let's Make It Official

'Tis the season to lighten up and give gifts, so let's be sure to include gifts of laughter and humor. Annually, let's Make the First Friday in April (National Humor Month) and the last Friday in November, officially Funny Fridays!

 

I have submitted those days to Chase's Calendar of Events

Laughter lifts spirits, reduces stress, connects us to others, makes happy memories, and has healing effects. We need laughter now more than ever, so let's devote at least a couple of day to creating, buying, giving, exchanging, or otherwise sharing gifts of laughter to tickle the funny bones of friends and family. 

The master of movie comedy, Charlie Chaplin, said, "A day without laughter is like a day without sunshine." I say, let's bring rays of sunshine to this too-often commercialized, tension-filled season by making the last Friday in November 'Funny Friday' (and to National Humor Month, and while you're at it, any other Friday during the year).

Laughter is a kind of medicine for the good it can do. And, the sound of mirthful laughter is contagious. What we have here is something the world needs now more than ever--something positive that we can catch from each other!

Many people who used to think that laughter was silly or that jokes were immature, have made the surprising discovery that laughter has its own natural, healthful benefits. Every system of the body functions better when you laugh. Laughter has survival value.

I have built an online catalog of things that laugh or that induce mirthful laughter. People love to hear the sound of laughing. In the Old Testament, Sarah laughed with joy and named her baby Isaac, the Hebrew word for laughter. The earliest recordings are of the human voice laughing.

Our 'child' lies dormant within each of us and our normal, intended state is to be healthy, magical, and childlike. I recall being a kid whose family spent summers in Atlantic City. One time, I redeemed my winning Skee-Ball tickets at the Penny Arcade for a battery operated mechanical laugh box that came in an orange drawstring bag. All summer, we kids on the beach in my neighborhood never tired of playing with it and falling down again and again in peals of laughter.

Out of that experience, I began to collect other mechanical laughing devices along with audio and video recordings of laughter. There's actually a DVD of 15 minutes of nothing but laughter, called The Gift of Laughter.

 

Now, we have electronic toys like the ingenious Laffy Laffalot, gadgets like realistic laughing key chains, family laughing games, and even children's books that laugh. The World Laughter Tour online catalog also lists various 'amusements' like a whirring, light-flashing wizard's wand, Happy Pills, laughing key rings, and books of jokes & funny stories for all ages from 3 months to 103. George Bernard Shaw observed that, "People don’t stop playing because they grow old, they grow old because they stop playing."

Family Laughing Game

Laughing Happy Pills

Terrific Joke Book

 

It has been said that the halls of heaven ring with the laughter of the saints. As you make your gift lists for this season and all through the year, be sure to include laughter and humor. They are appropriate and welcomed gifts for almost any occasion.

Three Suggestions:
1. As you make your gift list, think about what you know about each person's sense of humor and match it up with something suitable. Don't send off-color jokes to someone who is more reserved.
2. You don't have to spend a lot of money. A humorous greeting card will do just fine, and you can make your own.
3. Search online for jokes, riddles, or witticisms on topics that you know each person would appreciate (sports, a hobby, kids, business, etc.) and print out a compilation to add to a card or gift.

Your gift of laughter will be memorable for all the right reasons. Gifts of laughter are permission to lighten up, let go and have fun, and they make lasting connections. As Victor Borge said, laughter is the shortest distance between two people.

Award-winning psychologist, Steve Wilson, also known as The Joyologist and The Cheerman of the Bored, has spent 30 years specializing in applied and therapeutic humor with a humanitarian mission. As Director of National Humor Month, he intertwines science and ancient wisdom with substance and humor to lead the world to health, happiness and peace through laughter. More than six thousand people have completed his unique training in how to create therapeutic laughter, and tens of thousands more around the world have been uplifted by his talks, classes, books, and articles. He established the World Laughter Tour, Inc., in 1998, to be a rich resource and inspiration for improving productivity, health, and well being in business, healthcare and education.

Post-disaster humor, laughter, resilience, and action

Humor and laughter can offer post-disaster healing, but timing and receptivity are critical considerations.

“Now, more than ever.” We have said these words about therapeutic humor and laughter many times during the past dozen years. Perhaps, some would say, too many times.

Some of our laughter & humor colleagues have been hard hit by Sandy; many were spared. Weather experts tell us to expect and prepare for more frequent and damaging weather events.

"People throughout history have used humor, stories, music, dancing to cope with human tragedy," said Melina McLain, a San Francisco-based disaster response coordinator for the United Church of Christ. "Tapping into our own creativity makes us feel less powerless. The psychologist Carl Jung said, art is the cure for suffering."

Photojournalist Richard Misrach's video documentary gives an interesting perspective into the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. It’s pretty amazing to see both the reoccurring responses from those affected within the community as well as humorous responses after such a life changing event.

 

 

Yet sometimes, trauma is so overwhelming that our hearts go numb. When that happens, what should we do with our laughter, with our empathy, with our compassion?

One thing for sure, it will be good for us to stick together. And, to act.

WizeOne sez: The snowflake is God’s most fragile creation, but look what they can do when they stick together.

WHAT TO THINK?

We might seek a sense of balance in the stark-but-astute observation of George Bernhard Shaw, “Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh."

Some might ask, “How can you laugh at a time like this?” Some spiritual teachers might reply with a question, “How can you not laugh at a time like this?”

Or, we remember Ecclesiastes, “There is a time to laugh and a time to cry. A time for all things.”

Grief, a very unpleasant emotion, is the process necessary for healing from loss. Psychologist Annette Goodheart taught us why grieving can take a very long time: we cannot do it all at once; we do it in pieces; in many, many pieces. For a time, laughter may not be accessible. Eventually, laughter—the great emotional balancer—is possible again. "Just because you're miserable," she said, "doesn't mean you can't enjoy your life."

We take hope from our colleagues who study the humor of disasters. (Google "humor and disaster" for a plethora of reports.)

The father of Positive Psychology, Martin Seligman, and others report that following traumatic events, the large majority of people have resilience and bounce back; a small percentage actually are stronger at some time after the trauma; a small percentage have great difficulty coming back to normal functioning.

Logic can help, but it is not enough.
Platitudes can help, but they are not enough.
Science can help, but it is not enough.
Prayer can be comforting, but it is not enough.
What, then, is "enough"?

WHAT TO DO?

Perhaps we need to take action, remembering that no sincere act of compassion or charity is ever to small. Maimonides taught that the highest degree of charity is what helps a person be strong and capable enough that they no longer require charity. The next highest degree is giving anonymously so that the donor and the recipient are not known to anyone. But, you don’t have to stop there because there are at least six more degrees of charity. And, it is worth repeating: no sincere act of compassion or charity is ever too small.

Keeping these in mind might help us have the energy and resilience to think about what we can do, and to do it.

There are non-religious spiritual aspects to our work.

ACTION PROJECTS

“Some human beings are too hungry to be laughing,” is the subtitle of my call to action, “FULL BELLY LAUGHTER”. We could add that some are too cold, scared, sad, angry, stunned, or grieving. Understandably, these are natural human emotions that block access to laughter or make humor seem inappropriate, untimely, and in bad taste.

Read or re-read the attached paper, breathe deeply and stay open to your mind’s suggestions for the actions that are right for you. Then, do them!

Again: the snowflake is God’s most fragile creation, but look what they can do when they stick together.

Love, light and laughter,

Steve




 

 

We didn’t see it coming.

Pam and I have a standing joke that one of us is sleeping with the boss. On Boss’s Day recently, we argued about which one of us should send flowers.

We never intended it.

We didn’t plan it.

It was never a goal.

There is no precedent for it.

We didn’t see it coming.

Yet, now we find ourselves with a constituency of thousands of CLLs that is at least 85% female.*

It is high in our consciousness.

In many places, women are at a disadvantage, but in World Laughter Tour,  women not only lead a global movement for health, happiness, and peace, they also lead the businesses that fulfill the mission and generate incomes that help feed their families.

When we aim to help CLLs be competent and confident and successful in this funny business, it is largely about women.

Because we have launched our series of online classes for better business**, I thought you might also appreciate this video. Perhaps it will inspire you.

As always,

Steve

*I have a theory about why that has happened, but I am saving it for another time. What do you think?

**Our webinar class covering brilliant business basics is available now.

Guest Blogger: Dr. Bob Nozik - HAPPINESS, HUMOR, & LOVE

HAPPINESS, HUMOR, & LOVE

Bob Nozik, MD*

In future BLOGS I will show you ways for increasing your happiness, I promise.  But today I want to let you in on a rather provocative concept of mine relating happiness, humor, and love in a way I bet you’ve never heard before.


My interests primarily have to do with finding ways for raising people’s enduring happiness.  However, I discovered early on that laughter and humor are inexorably entwined with happiness.

What I want to do today is give you, the reader, a unique insight into what I consider some amazing parallels between happiness, humor, and love.

I’ll begin by making a few key observations for each of the three, tie them together and draw some conclusions.

Happiness: There are two distinctly different kinds of happiness: the common “hedonic” and the much rarer “eudaimonic” happiness. 

We all experience hedonic happiness, five, six, seven or more times every day of our lives.  It is the happiness that comes to us whenever something happens we want or like.  Examples would include when our favorite sports team wins a game; winning the lottery; finding a great parking place.  Note that it comes from things outside of our self.  This kind of happiness feels great but never lasts as long as we want.

Eudaimonic happiness, unfortunately, is rarely seen in our society.  It is internally generated and is relatively independent of external events.  Best of all, once we learn how to get and maintain it, it won’t ever leave.  Also, it feels different from its hedonic cousin.  Hedonic happiness comes on as an exuberant, joyful blast while eudaimonic expresses itself as a deep, enduring, inner peace and contentment.

Humor: Humor comes from incongruent or surprising situations and jokes resulting in the emotion of mirth.  Humor, says Rod A. Martin (Psychology of Humor, Academic Press, 2007) is “a broad-based term that refers to anything people say or do that is perceived as funny and tends to make others laugh…”  We bump into humor all around us and most of us experience humor a number of times every day. 

Most of us highly value having a good sense of humor.  In fact, a recent study reports the 80% of us believe we have a better than average sense of humor.  Those with a good sense of humor find humor in almost everything and everywhere.  Some of those with the most highly evolved sense of humor develop what is called a humorous perspective where they find humor in almost every aspect of life, even including death.    Though few reach it, this represents the highest level of sense of humor.

Ardent Love: As in the case of happiness and humor, there are two kinds of amorous or ardent love; the rather commonly seen romantic variety and the much more rarely encountered mature love.  Most of us will experience the passion and heat of romantic love a number of times--five, six, or more times--before we settle down with “the One.” 

It should be noted that 50% of marriages end in divorce and, in my view, at least 50% of those remaining stay together, not because the marriages are successful but due to inertia, fear of being alone, or other fears. 

The number of truly successful long-term marriages, the kinds based on what I call mature love, is very rare indeed.  Still, most of us know one or two couples who not only still love, but truly enjoy and respect each other after 20, 40, or even more years together.

Summary Chart: Let’s chart the parallels we can make from what’s just been said humor, happiness, and love.

Category/sub cat.       Onset             Incidence        Duration         Life Impact
HUMOR
A) Humor                      Rapid              Common         Brief                 Small
B) Sense of Humor        Gradual          Rare                 Long                 Great

HAPPINESS
A) Hedonic                    Rapid              Common         Brief                 Small
B) Eudaimonic              Gradual           Rare                 Long                 Great

LOVE
A) Romantic                 Rapid               Common         Brief                 Small
B) Mature                     Gradual            Rare                Long                 Great

Perhaps these similarities between humor/happiness/love are just serendipitous; however, I suspect that the linkages between them are real.  All three have an emotional component (humor, hedonic happiness, and romantic love) and, as the chart shows, they are remarkably similar in their presentation, course, and effect.  Similarly, all three have enduring life-path elements (sense of humor, eudaimonic happiness, and mature love) which are also quite similar in their course, development, and impact.

Could it be that humor, happiness, and love are really just variations of our basic humanity?  I suspect they are linked in a fundamental way.  And, while I am unaware of any research joining them in this way, I suspect that if we looked, we would find that the people who enjoy eudaimonic happiness also possess a strong sense of humor and enjoy mature love. 

"Love doesn't make the world go 'round, it just makes the ride worthwhile."

"Love may make the world go 'round, but laughter keeps us from getting dizzy."

What do you think?  

Bob Nozik, MD, has been writing and speaking on happiness since developing his own deep, inner, nearly constant happiness 25 years ago.  Bob is Professor Emeritus from University of California San Francisco Medical Center, having retired in 1999.  He is the author of two books on happiness: 1) "Happy 4 Life: Here's How to Do It," and "Happy Tymes Rhymes: Just for the Fun of It."  Both books can be ordered from www.Amazon.com or by contacting Bob at: pollyannan@aol.com.  

Please subscribe to my blog and share it with friends.

Steve Wilson