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(Auto-generated)Welcome back, welcome back.

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I'm WS Walker and this is the Laughing Matters Podcast.

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And oh boy, do I have a fun one for you guys today.

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This one's fresh off the presses, just thought of it the other day.

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Totally new realization.

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It was something I've known for a while to an extent, but like all the best stuff.

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You kinda know it because it's true, but you never really examine it.

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This is one of those cases.

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Do you remember that scene in American Beauty?

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I quote it all the time.

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Lester Burnham gets on us to go to his boss's office and says, hey Lester, got a minute?

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And he turns around and he goes, for you, Craig?

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I've got five.

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And it's just the snarkiest response.

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But I offhandedly threw this line out to my best friend Martin, and we're watching something

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together.

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I had to pause, man, because I had this following thought run a whirlwind through

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my head very shortly after saying it.

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And luckily Martin was kind enough to wait while I jotted it down.

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So we've kinda talked about a little bit of it before.

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What are those three super important things that we give out to people?

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Time, attention, and effort.

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And you're typically giving them all three when you give them money that you work for.

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And just like with money, we have this tendency to kind of budget it out, you know, even when

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it comes to our time, our effort, and our attention.

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So yes, we hand out time to people, but before we do, we make decisions on time budget per

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person.

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You know, there's a whole meeting that happens internally that goes, oh, okay, two and a

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half minutes max, you know, and you've got the other board members.

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We have those meetings, and then if that person goes over budget, then often there's a fierce

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renegotiation that takes place.

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I know you've had those.

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I've had them in those moments where somebody is just, man, it's time for me to go.

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And it occurred to me that a lot of people stick way too close to their initial budget

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decisions.

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And that way of living, of course, is in an opposite direction of real happiness.

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Nobody gets to happiness alone.

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And it's that connection that makes the happiness worthwhile.

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And without that time, without that effort, without that attention, that connection withers.

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And you don't think of them as much.

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And I was sitting there explaining all of this out to Martin as I'm having this thought

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process because I'm jotting it down and I'm explaining it to him so I know how to explain

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it on the page.

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Because for me, it's a very fluid understanding.

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It takes some effort to make it understandable to everybody else who doesn't have access

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to my entire file cabinet that I have.

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You know, that everybody's got their own file cabinet.

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You guys don't know where I've filed stuff or what stuff I've filed.

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Anyways, it was while I was explaining all this to him, we actually, I think I stumbled

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on it, but we had a good talk about how this is why we start with the smallest possible

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increment.

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Hey, you got a second?

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And we're so cautious to move up the scale.

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It takes so much more to move up to a minute.

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People assume something just got way more serious and is going to require a budget meeting

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when we move up to a minute.

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But yeah, I just wanted to record an episode and say that I propose this to you, dear listener.

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Be more present at the budget meetings.

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Don't just yeah, yeah, yeah, sign the paper onto the next order of business.

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I mean the you really want to better your company kind of there at the budget meetings.

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And be more kind and be more generous than you've justified.

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But deliberately try to help one person at a time when someone is in front of you.

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Give them more time than you would normally give them.

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Be generous because you have no idea how much more they show off of themselves when they

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see that you are willing to believe in their company's product.

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And remember when I said there were three main things that we give out?

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Well, there's one I left out and that's love.

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Because obviously give more of it than you've justified in the budget.

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It's the only sane way to live out there.

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If you actually want happiness, if you actually want the world to be better.

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You know you can't see the outcome.

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You know you don't get to be here for that.

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We are all planting seeds in a garden that for the most part we do not get to see grow.

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And the only sane way to live is to try to put the best you can out there for the rest

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of them.

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Because if you're doing for yourself at the end of this, guess who got all the benefits

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of you?

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Who did?

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Oh, that guy went in the ground.

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And chances are you're going to leave behind a wake of razor blades and land mines.

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But if you helped people, if you gave them time, if you gave them confidence by spending

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your effort and your attention on them, well then you leave behind a lot more that kept

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going and kept going outward.

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That doesn't always beget good, but man it is way more attractive to good than anything

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else.

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And that is it for today's episode.

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I do want to take a second to say good grief guys.

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Reach out to me.

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It's willhelpmail at gmail.com.

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Help me out here guys.

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I would love to answer some questions.

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I would love to get any kind of topic in here.

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Because one of the best parts of this whole series of concepts that I put out in the book

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is just the tendrils that it sent out into everything else.

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It gave a new perspective on almost everything in my life.

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And by way of that, it probably gave me a different perspective than you would get on

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whatever you send me.

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So please reach out to me.

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Try me out.

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Chances are it will go on the show.

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Oh and yeah, I was going to propose a challenge a little bit later, but let's do it now.

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Hey!

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Send in a recording of yourself.

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Asking a question.

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It will go on the air.

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I don't care what the question is.

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I'm going to bleep you if you start cussing, but otherwise it's going out.

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Do you have an opposing viewpoint?

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Okay, awesome!

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Oh my god, yes!

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Please!

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Because that means I haven't explained myself properly.

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Or it means you've thought of something that I haven't.

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Oh my goodness.

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That's...

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Either which way, I would love to talk about that.

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Can you imagine how much fun that is for me to realize I'm wrong about something on the

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air?

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That would be amazing!

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A little depressing on my end, but probably entertaining for you guys.

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It's very rare that anybody debates these topics with me.

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Usually the argument is born out of some kind of misunderstanding over what I said.

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But if you do...

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If you do have a...

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Like a not...

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Oh my god, if you read Herring through that...

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One of my biggest pet peeves.

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I want to say a debate, a conversation about it.

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Because when you open yourself up to changing your mind about something, about taking something

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in for what it is, emptying your cup, and then seeing if it's true or not...

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That's a conversation to me.

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We may have conflicting ideas, but I'm looking for where they meet first.

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And then I'm looking to figure out why they conflict.

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So hit me up, GoodHelpMail at gmail.com.

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You can Facebook me.

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That's facebook.com slash I could help.

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And of course, as always, you can check out the Could Help show, amongst other things

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that are now up there, related to the Laughing Matters Podcast at youtube.com slash could

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help.

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And as always, TheLaughingMatters.com, which has a new website coming.

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Yay!

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I designed it.

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I'm excited.

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I like it so far.

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It's been interesting using a digital tablet for the first time.

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I've always been a pen and paper kind of...

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Yay!

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So yeah, that's gonna be...

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For a minute, that's gonna be my last plea for you guys to reach out.

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Pretty pretty.

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Oh so pretty.

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I feel pretty and witty and please, reach out.

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Alright.

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So, to sum up, be good to them.

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Be good for them.

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And you're gonna do great.

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I'm W.S.

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Walker.

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You're the fantastic you.

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Be sweet.