A Smile For March Madness

It’s March Madness time. The race for #1.?

One of the greatest championships ever came 40 years ago, and it comes with a story.?

Houston v. N.C. State. With just under a minute to play and the game tied at 52, underdog N.C. State had the ball. They planned on running down the clock for one last second shot. Not easy to do against the number one team in the nation who had won 26 straight behind Hakeem Olajuwon, the guy drafted two spots ahead of Michael Jordan.?

With four seconds left N.C. State’s Dereck Whittenburg?launched a desperation shot from 10 feet inside half court. It was either into the wind or undershot, but landed in the hands of teammate Lorenzo Charles, who laid it in with one second left to win the National Championship.

N.C. State coach Jimmy Valvano made a frenetic dash across the court as fans poured onto the floor. “I had my mom and my dad, my brothers, my wife, all my children were there…everybody was crying,” Valvano later said.

N.C. State was #1.

That was April 4, 1983.?The tears would return again in April, ten years later. Coach Jimmy Valvano was dead at age 47.

Just a few weeks before his death, he gave a speech at the inaugural ESPY Awards given for excellence in sports performance yearly.

Now known as the “Never Give Up” speech, he said, “When people say to me how do you get through life or each day, it’s the same thing. To me, there are three things we all should do every day. We should do this every day of our lives. Number one is laugh.”

How the meaning of?#1 can change.

You’ve heard this before, that we should laugh more in our lives. Most take that to mean that if humor comes our way, great, we’ll enjoy it.

Well what if doesn’t come your way? What if there’s so much stress in your everyday life that it doesn’t often make its way in? What if you work with a bunch of crabby people??Or lawyers? Then what?

Don’t wait for it. I think what Valvano and so many who are battling for their life mean when they say we should laugh more is that we have to look for it.?

Do you ever look for it? Do you ever think about trying to use humor, or ways you can bring it to others? Probably not, and that’s natural.?We go about our daily routine, a constant race, doing our best. Jimmy V might say about that race, “sometimes the finish line comes sooner than we expect it.”?

Let me give you a more practical reason for looking for humor instead of you better because you’ll be dead soon. Your health and your workplace.?Never before have we heard more about mental health concerns.?The overwhelming medical evidence is that humor improves our mental health. Mayo Clinic and Oxford University studies will tell you that humor relieves stress, improves mood, lowers blood pressure, helps us cope with difficult situations, increases collaboration and promotes social bonds.?As for your workplace, humor is the number one means of engagement today. A Harvard study showed that leaders who are ranked as outstanding are twice as likely to use humor as average executives.?

Instinctively most people know all this.?Maybe not Putin, but the rest of us know that we feel better when we’re smiling and laughing.?It’s taking that next step from understanding this to seeing ways to use it.?

So here’s one easy way you can look for it.?At least once a day when you’re not working you run into someone who is at their job. Maybe it’s a store, restaurant, doctor’s office, any business. All day long, all that person hears from people is the business purpose for why they are there.?That’s 95% of the exchanges.

?Bring humor to those everyday encounters. “But I don’t have a joke or something funny to say,” you’re thinking. “I’m not a funny person.”

?Maybe you’re not. Maybe that’s why everyone hates you. But here is your chance to change that.?

Seriously, it’s not about being funny and telling jokes. That’s comedy. It’s understanding that humor gets its strength from being the unexpected. As stressed out as our country is, you don’t have to do much to get someone to smile.?Let me give you an easy one that always works.. Next time you’re in Starbucks or checking out at any cashier, ask: “Am I you’re favorite customer ever?” You can pretty much guarantee they’ll say yes. Then follow up with, “then can I have this for free?”?

?Now it’s not that that line is even funny. But it is unexpected, and that’s what will bring a smile. For both of you. And right at that moment you’ll feel pretty good physically because that's the way the brain works. We know from countless medical studies that humor releases endorphins (the feel-good hormones) and lowers the stress hormone - it’s that simple.

?The days are filled with opportunities, in any exchange, to bring a smile when someone isn’t expecting it. It doesn't have to be in person either. How many people do we digitally communicate with all over the world on a daily basis? People who don't know you are the last ones to expect something humorous. Give it to them. I cannot tell you the number of times I have received email responses from professionals, businesses, assistants, customer service agents saying “Thank you for making me laugh. That made my day.” Because we are starved for it in an often too sterile business world.

Life is on a running clock with no time-outs. Look for ways to use humor. Every day. Whenever you have a chance. And when you do, you’ll understand the one shining moment Jimmy V was talking about.