PakFellows Blog

Are you having fun? Do you get a thrill from your work? Do you enjoy waking up each morning? Myths about work can hurt your progress. “Work is not supposed to be fun.” “You must buckle down and get serious.” Perhaps the biggest myth of all: “People will think I’m important if I act seriously.” Yet getting serious creates problems: stress, worry, anxiety, emotional pain, drudgery and failure.

Resolving problems by getting more serious is like fixing a computer with a hammer. The harder you try, the worse the problem becomes.

“When life becomes serious, a man becomes less cause and greater effect. If life gets really serious, his value drops to practically zero. Driving a car can become such serious business that one can wreck the car. Running a business can become so serious as to make it fail. There is a direct connection between insanity and seriousness.” “It is only when an individual progresses in life to a point where much seriousness is attached to things that he begins to have a hard time. The ancient Italian really knew what he was about when he considered that the only psychotherapy was laughter.” — L. Ron Hubbard

12 Ways to Lighten Up!

Try these ideas until you find one that lightens you up.

1. Deliberately turn a molehill into a mountain. Make a big deal out of a little problem. “I would feel much better if these papers were stacked exactly like this! Not like that! Like this! Not this! This!”

2. Ask yourself, “Is getting serious about this situation really going to improve it?”

3. Focusing on the positives. “What is right about this situation?” “What else is right?” “What else?”

4. Consider a complete, major change. For example, go back to school, move to the ocean, start a new career.

5. Ask yourself, “When I’m on my deathbed, will I be glad I was so serious about _______?”

6. A challenging game is much better than no game at all. So consider losing all aspects of the problem. Examples: You feel serious about family problems. You ask yourself, “Well, what if I had no family at all?” You feel serious about your investments. You ask yourself, “What if I had no money to invest?”

7. The size of your problem may match the size of your game. So get a bigger game. For example, if you get uptight about paper clips being in the wrong drawer, your game size is tiny. Double your amount of responsibility. Set some huge goals. Succeed by thinking much, much bigger.

8. Stop trying to solve the problem that is making you so serious. Certain types of problems solve themselves if you leave them alone. Your problem may be one of those.

9. Compare what you are doing to other careers. Imagine being a septic tank drainer or a tax collector.

10. Make everyone around you lighten up. Share a funny story that makes fun of you. Tell some clean jokes.

11. Look at bizarre solutions. What is the craziest way you could solve your problem? What solution, if it worked, would make you laugh out loud?

12. Stop being so darn important for a while. Be a goof!

Life is like a train ride. We get on. We ride. We get off. We get back on and ride some more. There are accidents and there are delays. At certain stops, there are surprises. Some of these will translate into great moments of joy; some will result in profound sorrow.

When we are born and we first board the train, we meet people whom we think will be with us for the entire journey. Those people are our parents! They too have journeys they must complete. We live with the memories of their love, affection, friendship, guidance, and their ever presence.

There are others who board the train and who eventually become very important to us. These people are our brothers, sisters, friends, and acquaintances, whom we will learn to love and cherish.

Some people on the train will leave an everlasting impression when they get off. Some will get on and get off the train so quickly, they will scarcely leave a sign they ever travelled along with you or ever crossed your path.

We will sometimes be upset that some passengers, whom we love, will choose to sit in another compartment and leave us to travel on our own. Then again, there is nothing saying we cannot seek them out anyway. Nevertheless, once sought out and found, we may not even be able to sit next to them because the seat may already be taken.

That is okay, everyone’s journey will be filled with hopes, dreams, challenges, setback, and goodbyes. We must strive to make the best of it, no matter what. We must constantly strive to understand our travel companions and look for the best in everyone.

Remember, at any moment during our journey, any one of our travel companions can have a weak moment and be in need of our help. We too may vacillate or hesitate, even trip, hopefully we can count on someone being there to be supportive and understanding.

The bigger mystery of our journey is we do not know when our last stop will come. Neither do we know when our travel companions will make their last stop. Not even those sitting on the seat next to us.

We are all on this train ride together. Above all, we should all try to strive to make the ride as pleasant and memorable as we can, right up until the final stop and leave the train for the last time. All aboard! Safe journey!