Self-Seriousness Is My Biggest Productivity Killer
I have been watching the wonderful HBO show Julia lately. A recurring theme that I see in the show is that everything is approached with a combination of fierceness and fun. Broken eggs on the ground are laughed off and everything is done with an approach of laughter and enjoyment. She is quick to credit everyone around her for their help and to share the results of their (never her) success. She is contrasted with the self-serious staff at the public television station wonderfully; they are perplexed as to her draw and success. They are blind to their own shortcomings of making everyone else do the work and then taking all the credit. It is a lesson that I keep failing to remember. It is time to pick up the eggs off the floor again, laugh it off, put a big dollop of butter on my life, sip some wine and continue on.
My First Lesson in Avoiding Self-Seriousness
I was a lonely child. Often friendless, I would ask the teachers for extra math homework to do so that I could immerse myself in solveable problems when I got home at night. The sense of relief I felt solving problems was immense at the end of a day when my too-literal mind never could master the doublespeak that the girls were using. This gave me the opportunity to go to a great college and test my mettle. It did not, however, teach me anything about how to relax or laugh at…
