By Jeff Justice, CSP

For years, I’ve earned my living making people laugh, but I was funny long before I did it for money.

As a kid, I was always the class clown. Somehow, I instinctively understood the power of humor — that if I said something funny in class and it made my teacher laugh, I wouldn’t get in trouble. Of course, if she didn’t laugh, I got a chance to rehearse and try it again on the Principal. If I didn’t get a laugh there, I got to do it again in his office for my parents. Sometimes I did two or three shows a day…sometimes even an after-school matinee!
(more…)

By Jeff Justice, CSP

1. Start slowly.  Observe and listen for funny work-related anecdotes or incidents.  Write down those you want to remember and which can be tools at an appropriate occasion in the future.
2. Begin reading books of appropriate humor collections and write down those quotes, stories, or jokes that apply to you or your work situation.
   (more…)

By Jeff Justice, CSP

Why are there people who are funnier than the rest of us? What makes them different?  Oh sure, some people are just born funny.  Some just have a natural way of saying things that’s funny. Some may look funny while others talk funny.

After twenty plus years of teaching normal business people how to be funny(ier) I’ve concluded that the “Highly Funny People (Project Managers included)” all share the same habits, which are learnable by anyone,…even you.

• They have the ability and are willing to laugh at themselves. Their stories show how they failed but coped with it through laughter.  They teach others by laughing at their own mistakes.
(more…)

By Jeff Justice, CSP

1. Laugh at yourself. 
For good health, laugh at least ten times a day and five of those should be at yourself.
2. Realize that most events in our personal and business lives will fall somewhere on a continuum between very positive and very negative. Find your balance.
3. Do some stretching and breathing exercises every few hours.
Being trapped behind a desk or the wheel of a car all day can make the body stiff. Use deep breathing from your stomach to relax you and stretching to loosen the muscles and joints.
   (more…)

By Jeff Justice, CSP

SEVEN Instant Stress Busters:

1. The Bart Simpson Maneuver
   See your situation as your favorite sitcom or cartoon character would handle it.
2. Reframing
   Use humor to turn a negative into a positive.
3. Flow changers
   If you’re given lemons make lemonade.
4. Internal humor
   Treat them like they just left a mental institution. Lots of understanding.
5. Take a humor break
   Go listen to a funny tape or read something that makes you laugh
6. Joke hotline
   Form a group you can call when you’re stressed out to hear a quick joke and pick your spirits up.
7. Don’t tighten up, lighten up!
   Look for the funny side of life.

By Jeff Justice, CSP

To fight the daily onslaught of stress in your life, I suggest that you use your sense of humor. Nothing relaxes and refreshes the body like a good hearty laugh. It makes you feel good. There are no bad side effects and it’s non-fattening. The ability to take your job seriously and yourself lightly will go a long way in the battle against stress.

From a psychological point of view, work is nothing but organized stress, so unless you’re the chief tester for Lazy-Boy chairs, your job is where you feel life pressing down on you most heavily. This is where you need to lighten up.

Is stress that bad for you? Dr. Robert S. Eliot, a cardiologist who heads the Institute of Stress Medicine in Scottsdale, Ariz., estimates that as many as 500,000 Americans die each year from stress-related heart conditions alone.
(more…)