Worry (and humor)
Why Laughter Matters Now More than Ever

This is the 30th in a series of posts in which I share thoughts on a book that has inspired me over the years.

Early in my hospital administration career I hit a rough patch in a relationship with another of the leaders in our organization. I’d recently read a book titled “Small Decencies” that seemed like the perfect small gift to smooth things over.

I packed a copy of that book up with a nice note and sent it to him via campus mail.

He opened it, took one look at the book, and tossed it in the wastebasket.

When a week went by and I hadn’t heard from him, I stopped by his office and asked if he’d gotten the book.

He said that if I wanted to insult him, I didn’t need to spend money on a book, that I could do that to his face.

It took us a few minutes to figure out that when he looked at the book cover, he thought the title was “Small Deficiencies” and took it as a comment on his character.

We had a good laugh, a good talk, and have remained friends ever since.

In her brilliant TED Talk How Humor can Save the World my friend Karyn Buxman, who might be the world’s only neurohumorist, tells us that humor has the power to heal, to influence, to connect, and to transform.

This is the ultimate paradox of life: Whatever you most need at any time in your life will be hardest for you to find at precisely the time you need it most.

I suspect that you’re like me in that you have lately found too little to laugh about. That means that you need laughter, you need humor, now more than ever.

If you’ve ever joined in with a laughter club or done laughter yoga you know that their motto is “laugh for no reason” – don’t wait for someone to make you laugh, just laugh.

Proceed Until Apprehended: Leadership for What Matters

We recently returned from the annual conference of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership where the 12 volunteers who helped staff our exhibit hall booth gave away 500 copies of the 60-page preview of my forthcoming book Proceed Until Apprehended: Leadership for What Matters.

Those words – Proceed Until Apprehended – are an antidote to learned helplessness. The eBook version of the preview can now be downloaded from our website – click on the book cover.

Proceed Until Apprehended e-preview

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