Take a minute to enjoy yourself.
If you ever have to do something particularly distasteful, there are a few approaches you can try. You can force yourself to choke it down in big bites, hoping to get the worst of it over with as quickly as possible, and probably making yourself sick in the process. Or, you could procrastinate, work on it much slower than necessary, and make it taste even worse as it gets cold, stale, and more and more difficult to digest. You could, however, take it on in small bites and remember to mix in a little of whatever you do like, in order to make the whole thing taste better.
We all have times when we must pinch our noses and swallow something difficult. We get it over with and manage to do the right thing, which makes us feel a great deal of pride for having overcome a challenging obstacle. Can we do this every day, however?
At work, can we constantly wade through a sea of difficulties and challenges, stressful occurrences, unethical coworkers, failing projects, menial tasks, etc, etc, etc? If we have to just pinch our noses every day, don’t we eventually get tired of this and start to look for better conditions? Do we stop looking forward to the meal and, instead, find ways to distract ourselves as we drudge through yet another poorly cooked, awful tasting experience that doesn’t provide us with all the good things we need to stay healthy anyway?
Of course we do. No one wants to eat garbage with every bit, at every meal, every day, nor can they, no matter how ample the rewards may be.
Some things taste bad, but they are good for you. Make sure to eat those. Some things taste awful, and they are bad for you, too. Why on Earth are you eating THOSE?? Eventually, even if you can convince yourself that you can survive on garbage, your body will begin to break down from the lack of proper nutrition.
At work, it’s important to have a little fun, and not just occasionally when the company declares it’s annual picnic or the St. Patrick’s Day photo contest. Shouting, “Have fun out there!” is a waste of time – you can’t force people to have fun, nor can you dictate when it will happen. You must provide an environment where fun occurs naturally from time to time.
This requires a pro-active approach. It requires innovation, too.
The benefits, however, are obvious. The encouragement of humor and laughter allows people to fee more at ease. People who are free to laugh are free to express themselves. The freedom of expression allows more ideas to be heard and greater innovations to take place. Plus, where would you rather be, even if it wasn’t at work: A place where people keep to themselves, the walls are a drab beige, and no one has anything interesting to say, or a place where jokes are common, people are smiling, and a ping pong table is a catalyst for conversation?
If you make the environment fun, fun will happen in that environment. The workplace is full of things that we have to pinch our noses to swallow, so it’s important to learn how to eat it a little at a time, and remember to mix in some of the good stuff.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2KWY5Oqq1PU]
Thanks for a good belly laugh!
You’re very welcome!