En route Comedy Around the World's Istanbul, Turkey trip...at JFK I noticed that my watch had stopped.  So I asked for batteries at one of the stores.  "We don't sell those here in this terminal."  This was New York City; I guessed that if they didn't sell it here, I don't need it!  So I spent 6 days with no sense of time.  It made it a lot easier to endure the ten-hour flight because I wasn't constantly checking my watch to see how many more hours we had to fly.  Once in Istanbul, I didn't need to be on time anywhere.  Plus, I had friends who did have watches and I trusted that they would let me know when I needed to be somewhere else.    

The entire experience denied me a sense of perfectionism.  What if we didn't know what time it was?  How would we feel?  What would we do? 

Now:  What if we didn't know if something was funny or not.  Some people tell me after my presentations that "people laugh even when I'm not trying to be funny."  I tell them:  "You're doing something right.  You're a comedy catalyst."  

The point of my Istanbul trip wasn't to check the time at every available chance.  The point was to enjoy the environment and the experiences there.  The point of humor isn't to try and get laughs.  If we do, that's a bonus.  The main goal is to creat the lightened atmosphere in which the humor can enter and thrive and affect us and the people around us. 

"Get Your ShINE Together!" so you, too, can be a Shining Example to others.