Are you a person that others want to hang out with?
It’s a question that we don’t often ask ourselves. It’s easy feel entitled to the attention of others. Especially friends and family. We think that they should want to spend time with us. And not just spend time with us, but to enjoy it.
But that’s a selfish way of thinking.
If you want others to be around you then you have to make it enjoyable and positive to be with you.
One of the things that can take the fun out of spending time with you is not being able to laugh at yourself. Or taking yourself too seriously.
It can be a negative for your personal life, but also for your business life.
It Eases Tension With Others
If you’re always angry with yourself and at situations you’re putting others in tense situations. You’ve probably been around others that take things too seriously. Think back to a moment when it happened…
You were probably tense. You weren’t even the one with the negativity teeming through them, but you still felt tense and it probably hindered your ability to perform.
As a leader, it’s your job to put your team in a position to succeed. You can’t do that if you’re always being hard on yourself and taking things too seriously. There is a balance and usually that balance leans a little more toward the funny side of life than the serious side.
It Allows You To Move On
The more serious you take things the more unlikely you are to move on. When something happens and you ruminate on it and think about it and get angry and all those emotions the more you won’t be doing to move past it.
In golf, Dustin Johnson is a great example. So many golfers have been unable to come back from poor performances in tournaments. Dustin Johnson has had a handful of heartbreaking situations in major tournaments. But he seems to just let them go all the time. He kind of laughs them off as life just being crazy.
And it’s helped him become the best player in the world while others sit and dwell on the past.
Move on.
It Builds Resilience
And building on the last one is the idea of building resilience. Part of resilience is the ability to move on, but also learning from past situations. When something negative happens you can dwell on it or you could use it to learn.
Maybe a sales call goes poorly. Now you’ve experienced a bad sales call. If you can get through it you can get through something similar in the future. You don’t have to be scared of another bad call because you know you can get through it and still succeed.
It Attracts Others
Other people are attracted to laughter. We like to feel good. If you’re able to laugh at yourself and life in general you’ll attract people. You’ll attract good people and talented people and great workers and partners and more.
But one key thing to remember here is that it’s the ability to laugh at yourself. It’s a defense mechanism to make fun of others. It can seem like you’re being lighthearted, but laughing at the expense of others is a big turnoff. It shows insecurity.
When making jokes, make them about yourself. Laugh at your own situations. Have empathy for the situations of others.
It Sets An Example
We’ve kind of touched on this one throughout, but the ability to laugh at yourself shows others that they can do the same. We learn that kids often don’t listen to what adults say. Instead, they watch and observe and do what adults do. it’s how they learn.
And that really doesn’t change throughout life. Your employees may do what you say, but they will definitely observe you and decide if they should do what you do.
If you want your team to be less stressed or tense you need to lead with laughter.
Final Thought
There are more benefits to being able to laugh at yourself, but these are some of the big ones that came to mind. For each of them I had specific situations in mind. It’s definitely not always easy to laugh at yourself. Especially in business. But I find that it’s necessary if you want to grow.