I ran into a dentist with a face like a dinner roll last week, and not long after I read research that showed how we often lose our sense of humor at work. Ben … a newly promoted 50-something lead dentist with drawn jowls… admitted that he’d stopped laughing since his promotion. Normally a humorous prankster, Ben’s loss of laughter had reduced his once vibrant personality… and left him looking exhausted, and his business suffered.
It seems Ben is not the only one laughing less lately. Dr. William Fry, a psychiatrist at 
What’s funny lately where you work?
Double up … giggle … or fall into hysterics and you can chuckle your way to a more alert mind. Listen here to Bob Hope humor tonight over dinner and see why Dr. Fry recommends laughing to keep your mind alert, and your business alive.
Not that we all like the same jokes. If not Bob Hope jokes, then what makes you laugh? At 55 Robin Williams still goes after a laugh … mostly at himself, and almost always – at any expense.
When asked “What does getting older feel like to you? Robin shot back… “When I turned fifty and I got an AARP card in the mail, I went, Hell! That’s what I get? Thank you!”
Then Robin laughed at his age … “Actually, it's been great,” he added. “Hitting 50 was not a wall - it was like [Robin’s eyes roll back blissfully]… Because I had my midlife crisis when I was about 30, so I got that over with. But when I hit 50, it was like "This is cool...”
Having any fun with your own foibles in ways that add a few laughs to others around you?
Business and people enjoy the benefits of humor…. Did you know about the increasingly reported research, for instance, that shows how laughter raises weak immune systems. It also helps people deal with relationship problems at work…. and opens more mind to new ideas. Not a bad takeaway for a bit of humor.
Interestingly, endorphins – released once you get or give a joke, can also disarm people who create conflicts… help you rise to challenges … and lift depression, we are told. Want less pain? Laughter endorphins –it turns out surprisingly- are sometimes more potent than morphine.
Back to the gap between kids who remembered to laugh, and adults who too often forget -- where did you fall on the laughter scale at work today? Between the 300 laughs of a curious child … and the 17 hapless hoots of a dinner roll for a face?
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