Silliness is serious business
Taking life so seriously is killing us
“Where there is seriousness there is ego.
Where there is laughter there is God.”
- Kabir 
I was watching a tv programme last night about the Spanish island of Menorca and they showed a clip of a typical Spanish fiesta where people were dancing and singing and just basically having fun.
It struck me how vibrant and alive they were.
It felt very different to life in the UK at the moment where everything seems very heavy, serious and uncertain.
There’s not a lot of fun around.
What does all this seriousness cost us? Is this how we want our lives to be?
What is our life for if not to be enjoyed and relished?
As Helen Keller said “Life is either a daring adventure or nothing at all.”
Silliness is a gift that punctures the seriousness of the ego
Fortunately, being Irish, I’m used to silliness. Back home we call it “Acting the maggot.”
If you start to take yourself and life too seriously you’re told to “Catch yourself on.”
The Belgians have lost our flight plan so we’re opening the bar
These were the words of the Aer Lingus Captain as our plane sat at Brussels Airport one Christmas. I was flying home from Luxembourg where I was living at the time.
The Belgians are considered the Irish of mainland Europe - ie stupid! lol.
Since the Belgians were going to have to create a new flight plan for us, our departure was going to be significantly delayed.
Whilst I suspect this was against the law, the captain in his wonderful infinite wisdom told the cabin crew to open the bar and give all the passengers free drinks - yes you read that right - free drinks!
Drinks started flowing, jokes started being told, strangers started having craic (pronounced “crack”) together and soon singing started.
The Irish can sing forever and of course with it being Christmas it was obviously easy to get going with Christmas carols.
Even the non Irish on the flight, once they got used to our silliness, got into the spirit of things.
It was like we’d given them permission to be silly too.
Obviously the free drink helped.
It was the best flight of my life - such fun - everyone just decided to be silly.
We all got to act like maggots!
When we landed in Dublin my parents said they could hear our flight from beyond passport control as we were all still singing together.
Silliness had brought strangers together.
Silliness had connected us.
Silliness had dropped our egos and ignited our hearts and spirits.
Silliness had made us one.
You can harness the power of silliness for learning
I’m learning Spanish these days in a small group of five ladies of a similar age with a columbian teacher who’s lovely.
I notice there are times when we’re getting stuck and our (old!) brains are getting tired. Learning feels like a grind.
It’s in those moments that I generally bring humour in to lighten the mood.
I notice that when I’m taking learning Spanish too seriously and trying too hard, my brain and body get tight. It constricts and tightens my mind and stops things coming to me - Spanish words that I normally know desert me - I go blank.
Interestingly I notice that once we’ve all laughed, it’s like lightness has entered the room and our minds relax, our minds open and answers start to flow easily to us again without much effort.
The silliness also brings us together as a group. It breaks down barriers and creates harmony.
I notice that being silly together means that we encourage each other, we’re there for each other when one of us is struggling - it’s like a magical fairy dust.
Bottomline is:
When we’re talking learning too seriously it slows our learning down.
Whereas when we’re silly and light together we naturally take more in and learn more quickly.
You can harness the power of silliness for business performance too
I once had a CEO coaching client who discovered that part of his personal foundation that kept him at his best was to paint with his young kids on a Saturday morning.
Yip - you won’t learn that at Harvard 😉
He allowed himself to be silly and often, from what I could gather, got covered in paint!
One coaching session he came on the call and said he wasn’t feeling as creative or as insightful as usual at work. Things were feeling sticky and slow. Problems that he usually solved quickly were lingering and he was finding it draining.
Upon a little investigation he realised he’d stopped painting with his kids.
I appreciate that’ll sound bizarre and yet it was totally true for him.
He went back to having some “silly” time painting with his kids.
This “silly” time enabled him to receive answers to business challenges.
This “silly” time enabled him to have insights and creative ideas for his business.
This “silly” time kept him light and real which made him a much better, fun, dynamic, inspirational and approachable leader.
Oh and yes it positively impacted the bottomline.
Being silly together makes us more alive and more true
When you’re silly together:
Silliness connects you with others and it’s easier to let your guard down. When your guard’s down it’s easier to be honest and real with each other.
Silliness somehow has you trust each other more
Silliness frees your mind up to learn and discover new things more easily
Silliness frees you of the constraints of your logical rational mind
Silliness is a portal through which insights and creative ideas can emerge
Silliness uplifts the spirit and makes you feel vibrant and alive
In the moments when you’re being silly you feel safe, free and connected
Silliness is light, fun, carefree - childlike.
My invitation to you…
Where and how might you bring a little silliness into your life this weekend or next week?
What might that give you?
What might you miss out on if you just stay serious all the time?
Give it a go - give it a whirl - ACT THE MAGGOT!
See how it feels………….and let me know how you go.
what a wonderful insightful story about one of the key things that either drives our creative spirit or binds it in place, to never be creative again if we don't change act in a creative unbound way every now and then - act and thing and are outside the box.