by Richard L. Weaver IIWhen James Brown spoke to students, faculty, and guests at the University of North Carolina at Pembroke for their Distinguished Speaker Series, he talked about the seven basic fundamentals that will help you achieve success. James Brown worked for CBS for 10 years before joining FOX Sports. He has served as commentator for the NBA finals, for the NCAA basketball tournament, at the Super Bowl, and at the Winter Olympics.
Six of Brown’s seven fundamentals included good communication skills, dress and attire, punctuality and promptness, thirst and hunger for knowledge, interpersonal skills, and overcoming adversity. The seventh and last fundamental on his list was “having fun,” which he said was one of the most important. He said that education should be a fun experience because the more fun it is, the easier the learning experience.
More on the importance of Brown’s seventh fundamental in a moment. The reason for mentioning it — and the basic reason for this essay — is a comment that Rae Pica, the author of A Running Start (Marlowe & Company, 2006), left as a post after reading my Saturday essay, “Fundamentals First Before Fun!” Pica said, “...I want to assure parents, that despite the title of your post, fundamentals CAN be fun....”
Pica is absolutely correct: “fundamentals CAN be fun.” Not only that, fundamentals SHOULD BE fun. Without the ingredient of fun, fundamentals are often monotonous, repetitive, frustrating, and boring. It is precisely because of these traits that they should be fun. Fun is what can propel us beyond the monotony, repetition, frustration, and boredom.
Numerous researchers, in a variety of studies, have proven that humor and play enhance the learning experience.
To the serious assignments in my basic speech-communication course, I added a number of “fun” exercises and activities. In a related manner, I added humor to the lectures in the course and even put jokes and witty sayings on the examinations to try to loosen-up a situation that — because of the inherent anxiety that normally accompanies having to give public speeches — can induce greater anxiety, distress, and even dread. Having fun doesn’t mean being a joker or clown. I wanted to set the proper standard for fun within a learning environment — giving students the license to learn and have fun at the same time.
My approach is underlined and supported at a website by, “Team Building,” in an online article, “The FUNdamentals of Work” (http://www.ideachampions.com/life_play.shtml). The unidentified writer says, “Humor and play are intimately linked to peak performance and productivity. High morale and engagement are not just ‘nice-to-have’ in business — they’re essential. That is, if you want a workforce that is personally accountable for participating at the highest levels possible.”
How are humor and play introduced into a work or business environment? According to the “Team Building” website, it is accomplished by using play, non-competitive games, and improvisational humor. It does not mean learning to be childlike or acting immature or mindless; business must still be business.
James Patterson has also noted the importance of fun on his website (http://jamespatterson.ivillage.com/parenting/2007/11/putting_the_fun_back_in_the_fu.php). Patterson has sold more than 12 million books in North America and 130 million worldwide. He wrote Along Came A Spider, novels featuring Alex Cross, and the Women’s Murder Club and Maximum Ride series. Patterson writes, “For the first time in my memory, smart people in the book industry are addressing the fact that it’s not just that young people are reading less, but that they “appear to be reading less for fun....Of course,” he writes, “it’s a wisdom good teachers, good parents, and good habit-changers of all kinds have always known.”
Almost writing as if to make a direct contribution to this essay (if I could be so lucky!), Patterson says, “The pursuit of happiness is a little harder for our children to undertake if they don’t see the happiness they can have in their ‘academic’ pursuits.”
My contention is broader than any of those stated in this essay thus far. My contention is that fun — and a playful attitude — should be an everyday, integral part of our lives. In that way, it would be automatically included in any approach to achieving success. It would be integrated naturally and comfortably into all learning environments. And, it would be a structural and basic aspect of all work and business. In that way, it couldn’t be avoided, and it would be revealed spontaneously, in a relaxed, genuine, and open manner.
There are advantages to supporting my contention and incorporating humor into your life. It can help you manage stress, improve creativity, increase productivity, and balance the seriousness of life and work, writes Ron Culberson, a former hospice social worker, who runs a website focusing on humor (http://www.leadinghomecare.com/teleseminars/fun20040916.html). Culberson, a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), offers a program that helps people understand the role of humor in life and work by helping them achieve balance, create a healthier perspective, connect with others, and make their messages memorable.
In his book, How to be Funny on Purpose (Cybercom, 2005), Edgar E. Willis writes that being funny “can turn you into a person who is fun to be with, one who can enliven a workplace or add zest to a social gathering. It can add sparkle to your teaching and writing, it can make you a more attractive and effective speaker, it can help you cheer up those who are buffeted by life” (p. 13).
Jason Moffatt, on his website, “The Fundamentals of Fun and the Art of Playing,” (http://www.jasonmoffatt.com/the-fundamentals-of-fun-and-the-art-of-playing/) writes, “Being a fun and playful person is beneficial in so many different ways; some are obvious, while many other reasons are quite subtle. I believe people need comic relief in life, and any time you can get someone to laugh, you’ve done a good deed....”
Brown was right when he said humor is an important fundamental for achieving success, but he could have gone further saying it is important for living our lives. “The evangelist Billy Graham,” according to Willis, “summed up what humor can do in these words: ‘Humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable” (p. 13).
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Jason Moffatt writes an essay, “The Fundamentals of Fun and the Art of Playing,” that effectively presents my overall case, and supports the quotation he offers by Dr. George Sheehan, “Without play — without the child that still lives in all of us — we will always be incomplete. And not only physically, but creatively, intellectually, and spiritually as well.” See his website: http://www.jasonmoffatt.com/the-fundamentals-of-fun-and-the-art-of-playing/
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Six of Brown’s seven fundamentals included good communication skills, dress and attire, punctuality and promptness, thirst and hunger for knowledge, interpersonal skills, and overcoming adversity. The seventh and last fundamental on his list was “having fun,” which he said was one of the most important. He said that education should be a fun experience because the more fun it is, the easier the learning experience.
More on the importance of Brown’s seventh fundamental in a moment. The reason for mentioning it — and the basic reason for this essay — is a comment that Rae Pica, the author of A Running Start (Marlowe & Company, 2006), left as a post after reading my Saturday essay, “Fundamentals First Before Fun!” Pica said, “...I want to assure parents, that despite the title of your post, fundamentals CAN be fun....”
Pica is absolutely correct: “fundamentals CAN be fun.” Not only that, fundamentals SHOULD BE fun. Without the ingredient of fun, fundamentals are often monotonous, repetitive, frustrating, and boring. It is precisely because of these traits that they should be fun. Fun is what can propel us beyond the monotony, repetition, frustration, and boredom.
Numerous researchers, in a variety of studies, have proven that humor and play enhance the learning experience.
To the serious assignments in my basic speech-communication course, I added a number of “fun” exercises and activities. In a related manner, I added humor to the lectures in the course and even put jokes and witty sayings on the examinations to try to loosen-up a situation that — because of the inherent anxiety that normally accompanies having to give public speeches — can induce greater anxiety, distress, and even dread. Having fun doesn’t mean being a joker or clown. I wanted to set the proper standard for fun within a learning environment — giving students the license to learn and have fun at the same time.
My approach is underlined and supported at a website by, “Team Building,” in an online article, “The FUNdamentals of Work” (http://www.ideachampions.com/life_play.shtml). The unidentified writer says, “Humor and play are intimately linked to peak performance and productivity. High morale and engagement are not just ‘nice-to-have’ in business — they’re essential. That is, if you want a workforce that is personally accountable for participating at the highest levels possible.”
How are humor and play introduced into a work or business environment? According to the “Team Building” website, it is accomplished by using play, non-competitive games, and improvisational humor. It does not mean learning to be childlike or acting immature or mindless; business must still be business.
James Patterson has also noted the importance of fun on his website (http://jamespatterson.ivillage.com/parenting/2007/11/putting_the_fun_back_in_the_fu.php). Patterson has sold more than 12 million books in North America and 130 million worldwide. He wrote Along Came A Spider, novels featuring Alex Cross, and the Women’s Murder Club and Maximum Ride series. Patterson writes, “For the first time in my memory, smart people in the book industry are addressing the fact that it’s not just that young people are reading less, but that they “appear to be reading less for fun....Of course,” he writes, “it’s a wisdom good teachers, good parents, and good habit-changers of all kinds have always known.”
Almost writing as if to make a direct contribution to this essay (if I could be so lucky!), Patterson says, “The pursuit of happiness is a little harder for our children to undertake if they don’t see the happiness they can have in their ‘academic’ pursuits.”
My contention is broader than any of those stated in this essay thus far. My contention is that fun — and a playful attitude — should be an everyday, integral part of our lives. In that way, it would be automatically included in any approach to achieving success. It would be integrated naturally and comfortably into all learning environments. And, it would be a structural and basic aspect of all work and business. In that way, it couldn’t be avoided, and it would be revealed spontaneously, in a relaxed, genuine, and open manner.
There are advantages to supporting my contention and incorporating humor into your life. It can help you manage stress, improve creativity, increase productivity, and balance the seriousness of life and work, writes Ron Culberson, a former hospice social worker, who runs a website focusing on humor (http://www.leadinghomecare.com/teleseminars/fun20040916.html). Culberson, a Certified Speaking Professional (CSP), offers a program that helps people understand the role of humor in life and work by helping them achieve balance, create a healthier perspective, connect with others, and make their messages memorable.
In his book, How to be Funny on Purpose (Cybercom, 2005), Edgar E. Willis writes that being funny “can turn you into a person who is fun to be with, one who can enliven a workplace or add zest to a social gathering. It can add sparkle to your teaching and writing, it can make you a more attractive and effective speaker, it can help you cheer up those who are buffeted by life” (p. 13).
Jason Moffatt, on his website, “The Fundamentals of Fun and the Art of Playing,” (http://www.jasonmoffatt.com/the-fundamentals-of-fun-and-the-art-of-playing/) writes, “Being a fun and playful person is beneficial in so many different ways; some are obvious, while many other reasons are quite subtle. I believe people need comic relief in life, and any time you can get someone to laugh, you’ve done a good deed....”
Brown was right when he said humor is an important fundamental for achieving success, but he could have gone further saying it is important for living our lives. “The evangelist Billy Graham,” according to Willis, “summed up what humor can do in these words: ‘Humor helps us to overlook the unbecoming, understand the unconventional, tolerate the unpleasant, overcome the unexpected, and outlast the unbearable” (p. 13).
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Jason Moffatt writes an essay, “The Fundamentals of Fun and the Art of Playing,” that effectively presents my overall case, and supports the quotation he offers by Dr. George Sheehan, “Without play — without the child that still lives in all of us — we will always be incomplete. And not only physically, but creatively, intellectually, and spiritually as well.” See his website: http://www.jasonmoffatt.com/the-fundamentals-of-fun-and-the-art-of-playing/
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Contact Richard L. Weaver II
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And Then Some: Essays to Entertain, Motivate, & Inspire - Book 1Signed copy of Book 1 for $16.47 while supplies last!
Humor can make the worst job better and the better job best. More employees (and bosses for that matter) would love their jobs if they would only inject a little humor into their daily tasks. I've even seen employees who manage to make intolerable workplaces tolerable through humor. It is in our power!
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