Luck. We hope for it, count on it, blame it when things don’t go as planned. Isn’t it tempting to console ourselves that a rival’s success is due to luck, not talent and hard work? It’s just as tempting to dismiss any of our own accomplishments as luck, especially when the payoff comes long after all the effort, planning and angst. Attributing all successes to luck is certainly self-defeating, and that’d be, well, unlucky…because it’s daily effort, optimism, consistency and tenacious adherence to the journey that make the luck.
General
13, Oct, 2012
Feeling Lucky?
28, Sep, 2012
7 Things I Learned Doing Standup that Can Help You Meet Any Challenge
Here’s something I learned from years of performing standup in clubs, colleges, auditoriums and a federal penitentiary: Standup comedy is metaphor for life. It’s tough, thrilling, often painful, often fun, always rewarding. And in standup, as in life, there are myriad things that are completely beyond your control. You learn by trial and error, but learn to make the best choices you can under pressure. And when — not if — you fail, you get back up onstage as soon as possible, knowing that the process will ultimately bring you success.
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20, Sep, 2012
Calculated Risk and Kickass Personal Transformation
Kickass Personal Transformation is my term for the uplifting and energetic process that creates positive changes in life. KPT is progress, self-discovery, adaptability and optimism, and it always involves positive risk. The past month for me has been uber busy, working on the second annual Laff-aholics Comedy Benefit for Recovery, (Sept. 15th, 2012 at the IMA) and preparing for the upcoming release of my book, Never Give in to Fear: Laughing All the Way Up From Rock Bottom, on Oct. 8th, 2012. And during the past month I’ve been thinking a lot about calculated risk and positive vs. negative risk-taking.
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16, Aug, 2012
Pain, Gain, and Olympic Inspiration
Two weeks have passed since I posted my last blog entry August 2nd. This summer for me is a busy one, almost too intense — sometimes overwhelmingly so — but fun. However, I’ve been cheating myself out of one of my favorite stress relievers — exercise. I’ve only done the minimum forty minutes or so of cardio daily, and my abs — a hundred crunches at night. Since my schedule’s been overloaded and often erratic, I’ve missed out on riding my mountain bike, which is something I really dig doing in the summer.
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16, Jul, 2012
Be a Positivity Badass: Expect More, Worry Less!
Each day presents new opportunities to hone your stress management skills and increase optimism. That’s one way to look at it, anyway, and I prefer to focus on the positive. In my opinion, it takes a true badass to embrace optimism and employ enough mental discipline to continue to cling to that positive spin, rejecting any and all negative input.
When I was on the streets, an active drug addict, I thought I knew what it meant to be a badass, but I truly had no clue. I lived my life anticipating negative events, and attracting more and more pain and problems into my already problematic existence.
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10, Jul, 2012
The Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Stress Management, and A Burgeoning Uneasiness With Facebook
California will always be my home — I’ve been a California resident for 25 years. Since I currently reside in both Indianapolis and the San Francisco Bay Area, alternately, I have come to appreciate Indianapolis. For one thing, it’s a city built by, of, and for sports. I’ve never been a jock. I love to work out — it raises my endorphin levels and keeps my energy up — but the only sport I truly understand and get excited about watching is basketball. And Indy is a basketball fan’s dream.
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2, Jul, 2012
Remember to Have Fun!
Fun is an attitude, a state of being; it’s playfulness, enjoyment or amusement. Fun can inspire you, motivate you, and empower you to change your attitude, reactions and perception of yourself. Fun and a sense of humor will propel you toward your goal more quickly and give you inspiration, motivation and a sense of well-being along the way. If you’re having fun, you’re increasing your levels of “feel good” neurotransmitters in your brain ⎯ dopamine, serotonin, etc.
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27, Jun, 2012
Winning with Laughter
Laughter wins. Adding humor to your speech will make your intellectual content easier to remember and a whole lot more fun to deliver. Your audience will retain more of what they hear because humor reduces stress. The lower the stress level, the more we learn. Research has shown that laughter stimulates both hemispheres of the brain, accelerating learning.
You don’t have to be a professional comedian or even a class clown in order to infuse a presentation with humor. You don’t have to tell jokes. You can cultivate a unique sense of humor, develop funny material, and acquire skills for delivering humor.
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24, Jun, 2012
Resilience: Bend and Bounce So You Won’t Break
Resiliency is the ability to bounce back, adapt to adversity, and roll with the punches. Resilience gives us the flexibility to restore ourselves, and our lives after difficulty, trauma, and loss, and it is a quality in high demand during these rapidly changing times. Although there may be a genetic factor involved, resilience is not something you are either born with or not. You can learn, build, and develop your resilience. A sense of humor, like resilience, can also be learned and developed, and it can really help you to roll with the punches.
Here are four strategies to help you build your resilience:
Get Connected, and Stay Connected.
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21, Jun, 2012
Practice the Art of Being Unconditionally Happy
Happiness is a state of being. It is a way of thinking, a conscious choice. Lots of people think the “pursuit of happiness” is a linear process, so they live in a state of expectancy, or hope of happiness arriving…some day. They pursue, hoping to some day overtake happiness when the conditions are perfect. But you can experience happiness in the present moment, without waiting, if you give yourself permission — in the moment. There is no need to meet any requirement, fulfill any quota, or compete with rivals in order to allow yourself the liberty of carrying unconditional happiness inside you every moment of the day.