Farmers need to develop a humour habit, says a former teacher who spoke recently to a Manitoba dairy group.
Mike Moore of Brantford, Ont., said in an interview that farmers should look for funny aspects in life and share them with the family at lunch or supper.
It is therapeutic to laugh, Moore said. Farmers have a lot of stress in their life because of uncontrollable weather and market conditions, so they must work at finding humour to lower blood pressure, energize the body with oxygen from laughing and relieve the loneliness of the work.
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He suggested each farm office should have a bulletin board on which jokes and cartoons can be posted regularly.
Humour has a magnetic power, he said. When people are laughing, others want to know what’s funny so they can share in it.
Farmers sometimes have a reputation as whiners and some tend to be cautious and skeptical. Moore said he encountered that with a ginseng farmer audience that took 10 minutes to warm up to his humour talk.
A good joke he tells such groups involves the recognition factor. He tells farmers that bankers are people who lend you an umbrella when the sun shines, but want it back when it rains. That always draws chuckles and head nods.
“Pain in life is inevitable. Misery is optional. You can do something about your attitude.”
Humour also helps farmers keep their hired hands. He said laughter, appreciation and praise motivate people more than sex and money.
“These things are cheap. They don’t cost money so they tend to be neglected.”
Mining the funny moments in life and telling the stories, as embarrassing as they may be on yourself, are ways to glue together social relationships between family members and employer and worker, he said.
Here is a sampling of thoughts about humour from Mike Moore’s website at www.motivationalplus.com.
- “Time spent laughing is time spent with the gods.” – Japanese proverb.
- When we feel the least like laughing, we need it the most.
- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. Wisdom helps us to avoid future mistakes and comes from making a million of them.
- Leave your comfort zone. It is the greatest barrier to achieving your potential.
- Commit yourself to joy. Author C.S. Lewis said, “Joy is the serious business of heaven.”
