Enjoy the Process

p420525 m - Enjoy the ProcessMany of my clients refer to me as “The Attitude Adjuster.”  Why?   I help people realize how they can acquire the attitude they need to succeed in all levels of life while enjoying the process.  Therein lays the key, my friend; “While enjoying the process.”  Unfortunately, in this day and age, enjoyment seems to be something that many people leave by the wayside, especially when change is taking place and the pressure is on to reinvent yourself and achieve new goals.  Or when there are tight deadlines to be met and things aren’t going exactly as planned.

Now more than ever, people are having difficulty balancing their lives and there just doesn’t seem to be enough time to get everything done.  This is when the stress levels become overwhelming and self-doubt, anger, uncertainty, fear and a host of other negative emotions can create a dangerous mindset.  Without realizing it, people deny themselves enjoyment and lose their ability to laugh and have fun at the time when it’s most crucial.

Studies have shown that those who make conscious choices to enjoy themselves and laugh throughout the day are more creative, productive and resilient to challenging situations.  They are also more likely to easily find solutions to complex problems.  In other words, focusing on your happiness makes you smarter.  How smart are you?

“Intellectual benefits of a good laugh,” says Daniel Goleman, author of Emotional Intelligence, “are most striking when it comes to solving problems that demand a creative solution.”

In a study testing creative thinking, experts found that the participants’ ability to solve a puzzle was positively affected by their ability to take a humorous approach to the task.  In the test, groups of people are given a candle, matches and a box of tacks.  They are asked to attach the candle to a corkboard wall so that it burns without dripping wax on the floor. 

“Given the challenge, most people fall into ‘functional fixedness,” says Goleman.  “They think about using the objects in the most conventional ways.  But people who have just watched a funny film, compared to people who have watched a film about math or who have exercised, were more likely to see an alternative use for the box holding the tacks.  They come up with the creative solution of tacking the box to the wall and using it as a candle holder.”

A study done at San Diego State University followed students who thoroughly enjoyed themselves as they attended a series of lectures that contained humor and funny anecdotes.  These students achieved higher test scores than students who attended the same lectures but without the humorous elements.  Why?  Because they were enjoying the process.

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