Personal Development Blogging and Humour

I look around the internet and come across countless blogs just like mine. Some get more hits than I do, some get less. I find that the majority have a lot in common in that they’ll have some kind of formula for enhancing your quality of life. Each has it’s own powerful unique message to offer and each is priceless in it’s own way because each is a unique creation out of someones desire to make life that much more enjoyable for the masses.

I love writing and even after nearly three and a half years of doing this my enthusiasm for it has not diminished at all. I love doing it even more now then when I first began. I feel that I’m a much better writer than when I first started and the quality of my articles has improved immensely. It’s wonderful to see that some of my articles like ‘Dealing With Death and ‘My Suicide Attempt’ reaching out to so many. I get lots of emails from people asking me questions and asking for advice in their times of need.

Lack Of Humour

For me, the one thing that’s lacking, not only from my blog, but other similar blogs too, is humour. I love making people laugh which is why I do the breakfast show at the radio station. I see a showbiz news story and as I’m reading it something usually comes to me so that I can put a funny spin on it. Humour for me gives life the enjoyment it deserves. There’s nothing I hate more than being out with a group of people and not being able to engage them with humour. Even getting involved in discussions about personal development can get stale without humour.

Humour In Other Situations

I went speed dating recently and decided to not introduce myself with the boring status quo responses. When a woman asked me what I did, I looked at her dead serious and said to her that I am the chief pie taster for Mr Kipling. 😆 It worked a treat! I got some great laughs and the girls didn’t know quite how to take it; they didn’t know whether I was being serious or if I was just joking around, but either way, it made them laugh. I threw the odd “I’m an astronaut” and “I’m a nuclear physicist” in there just for good measure. I even told the truth on the odd occasion and said that I was a stand-up comedian. Strangely though no one believed me! :-O

One of my goals from this year was to bring together all the things that I do and merge them into one. I don’t see this being a problem. I believe it’s possible to combine my spiritual beliefs, my philosophy, my radio, my comedy, my coaching and my writing into one stream through which I can continue and enhance the work that I’m doing.

Incorporating Humour

Have you ever been with a group of people and when you were with them you were the center of attention You told stories like you were a master at them and also made everyone laugh through the way in which you regaled them. Conversely, have you ever been a situation where you with a group of people, and in that situation you could barely get a word out with out stuttering. You were lost for words and you didn’t know what to say next for the fear of making a bit of a fool out of yourself.

I’ve been in that situation many times. Often the reason for that happening is where you place yourself within that group. If you believe yourself to be below all the people in the group you end up with the latter of the two scenarios. If you believe that you have something genuine to offer then you’ll end up being in a much better position from which to act. You will be the one everyone looks to for the next story. People wont’ be able to wait to hear your next story. They will be dying to hear what you’ve got to say next.

The Power Of Story Telling

The best way to present humour is through stories. I love Russell Peters as in his stand-up sets he often tells the stories in a way that feels like they’re 100% real, they happened exactly as he tells them and they always have a great ending!

Another comedy hero of mine is Danny Wallace. I’m reading his book ‘The Yes Man’ at the moment and I’m learning so much from it in terms of presenting my writing with more humour and looking for the good stories that happen around me all the time. In fact, that is the key. If you want to be able to engage your audiences better then the key is learning to pickup on the great stories that happen to you daily and then working out how to relay that story to others. Most of us do it naturally a lot of the time but it’s learning to do it on demand that is the key.

I recently got asked to do a wedding speech for my friends wedding. I decided to look at some wedding speeches online that other people that have done and there have been some real gems. Some people have come up with some great speeches that when I read them you could feel they not only came from the heart but they told a wonderful story with plenty of good humour mixed in.

Changing Old Habits

Even as I’m writing this, this post straight away lacks humour for my taste. If I stumbled across this website I would probably read the article and then move on. It’s not that I don’t believe in my own but I do believe in improvement and variety. I believe that humour adds an individual flavour to a blog. A blog without humour is a bit lifeless for me unless the post is particularly special and is of a theme that doesn’t require humour; a bit like my ‘Dealing With Death’ post.

Starting from now I intend to continue writing pieces that have the theme of personal development but they will definitely have a different feel to them. The skill of humour is one that any of us can incorporate more. Taking life a little less seriously and just being more observant as to what goes on around you will be enough to enlighten you to the funny things that go on around you.

A Closing Story And Message

I was out at a club a while ago and I saw this girl who I thought was absolutely stunning. Luckily, we had a mutual friend which saved me the hassle of tripping of over my own tongue with a cold self introduction. We got talking and had a great chat about…something…what? I was intoxicated by her beautiful eyes! 😉 Anyway she suggested we go onto the dance floor. I somehow managed to maintain my cool exterior even though my head was flooded with the almost unstoppable urge to do some kind of victory dance. When we got to the dance floor my jaw just dropped. This had never happened to me before! There I was with this gorgeous woman and never had I been so quickly turned off by a woman who has no rhythm. She didn’t have a clue how to dance!! At the earliest opportunity I snuck off the dance floor with a lame excuse….”errr I have to go powder my nose.” As much as thought that a salsa class or two would be an ideal gift for her; I couldn’t help but look at this either of two ways. Either she thought she could dance and was totally oblivious to her lack of rhythm. Or she knew that she couldn’t dance to save her life and yet she truly didn’t care. In many ways I envy that quality in people. I’m getting pretty close with my stand-up comedy. It doesn’t matter to me so much if my jokes don’t go down so well. What’s more important to me is that I’m up there having a good time! 😉