I should have learned how to make myself laugh before I tried to make everyone else laugh.
I thought that laughter and humor in the world were about making other people laugh. Now I realize that there is an immense amount that only you will ever find funny, only you will ever notice in a split second, only you will be able to connect the dots the way your mind does etc.
If you’re always trying to make other people laugh, you’re going to miss out on experiences that could be opportunities for laughter and joy for you.
Which matters more, making sure that everyone around you is pleased by the person that you are? Or, being who you truly are and therefore attracting those who value who you are?
The decision to tell a joke more for my sake than for that of everyone around me, allowed me to stop chasing inauthentic and silly humor and allowed me to pay attention to the things that I cared about, as far as humor goes, the little things in life that I found funny.
Not very many people laugh at my jokes anymore but it doesn’t matter because I’m not trying to please everyone else around me. Instead, I find satisfaction in having made myself laugh.
I wish I had learned how to make myself laugh sooner and care less about whether everyone else got the joke.
