Explain what I believe about living a Comedic life. It is far better to live in a Comedy than a tragedy.

Use Linear Wipe at times to transition from Comedy style to Tragedy Style. When speaking in general have screen be split 50/50 and as I go to make a point specifically

What is the story? How do I serve that and only that. This isn’t about an elaborate theory. This is about a simple story. What is the story? Well, let’s first ask the difference I would like to make in each person’s life? I want people to walk away feeling inspired to embrace chaos, live a bit more loose, and willing to fit more life into their years.

Rough.

If you had to pick, would you rather live in a Tragedy or a Comedy? The answer seems obvious. Every sane person should quickly say Comedy. Yet, it seems to me that most people are living in tragedies of their own design, and that it might actually be easier than they think to change their fortune. It might be as easy as a simple shift in perspective.

I once had a charming Shakespeare Professor, whom I really admired. I loved his class, but do to my own character defects I rarely attended class (despite wanting to), nor engaged with the class’s material. However, this does not mean I didn’t leave the class changed. There was one lesson in particular that has positively guided my life since. Hopefully I can impart that lesson to you by the end of this video.

I once took a Shakespeare course. I had an intelligent and charming Professor, whom I really admired. I loved his class. But due to my own character defects, I didn’t engage with it as much as I would have liked. Even still, I learned a lot. I actually learned one lesson in particular that has completely reshaped the way I carry myself since. It has truly affected the way I live, and for the better.

The lesson was simple, and I might have completely misunderstood what he actually meant by it, he might have only meant it in a technical since, but I took it and began applying it to my life. The lesson was this: He said “The main difference between a Comedy and a Tragedy in Shakespeare is that tragedies present reality as a series of either/or propositions, while Comedy presents it as as series of both/ands.”

Could it actually be that simple? I had already believed that people are always attempting to fit their lives into a narrative structure and that our actions were largely our attempt to help co-author that narrative with reality. But I had never considered, that we could change the entire genre of our life’s narrative, only sentences or chapters?

Before now, I did belive we could change sentences and maybe chapters of our life through action, but now I recognized that a simple mindset shift could completely alter the genre of our life’s story. We could go from tragedy to comedy simply by treating our life with an abundance minset rather than a scarcity one. Ultimately I think that is what both and and either or means. Either or accepts that their is finite reserves of time and energy, whereas both and percieves that there may be an abundance of time and energy. Ultimately, we should be humble enough to accept that we are not the ones who get to put a cap on how much we can handle. I feel that so many of us leave so much in reserve and have plenty of untaped potential. If make make convenience a god though, if we value it above most else, we’ll serve it at the cost of our souls. I think too many people do this today. They could certainly say yes toi more, they could certainly put more on their plate, but they are to afraid of doing things poory for a while. Juggling is a skill that can be learned like anything else, and the more you put on you plate it will force you to get better at doing more. Another thing to recognize that efficiency is not necessarily a virtue. I feel Efficiency has taken a lot of soul from the world. Today we mass produce everything, you are hard-pressed to find any household that has any unique clothing, andy unique dishes, any uniique furniture. It is all a copy, of a copy, of a copy. When you look at ancient greek or roman art, its suprising how much of it was everyday household items. The objects they interacted with everyday were handmade and beyond beautiful. Today, we value efficiency and convinience above all else and it leaves us with monochrome lives and McDonald’s next door. So in this way, by valuing efficiency and convenience above all else we have lost the souls of our cities and homes. But the individuals that put these things first have also lost their own souls in the process.

Well, it was immediately obvious to me that I’d prefer to live in a comedy rather than a tragedy, yet I could see that I was treating my life as a series of either/or propositions. I noticed that oftentimes I would get an opportunity to do something fun socially, but I if had already planned to study at that time, I would feel that I could only do one or the other. If I studied, I’d be neglecting my relationships and the playful side of my personality, if I went hangout I’d be neglecting my work and responsibilities. These weren’t either or propositions though, there was certainly a way to do both, but just at my own inconvenience. And this is the reason I think most people treat life as either/or, simply because they value convenience above all else.

If you want to understand this lesson better, I highly recommend you go watch Yes Man with Jim Carrey. This movie explains the concept far better than I have in this video. Pay attention to how at the beginning of the movie convenience is his highest value, and how as he begins saying yes to things it often forces him out of his comfort zone into inconvenient situations. By doing seemly inconvenient actions though, and fitting more life into his years, he actually gains far better qualities of life than mere convenience. He gains passion, vigor, enthusiasm, fulfillment, hope and more. Go watch it and tell me watch you think below in the comments I really look forward to seeing how it impacts you!

Living a both/and life in certain circumstances could actually be very unwise, though, and this really must be considered if you want to do this approach to life well. We don’t have the expression “You can’t have your cake and eat it too” for no reason. There is definitely a way to attempt to live both/and and actually get closer to a tragedy than a comedy. Also, now might be a good place to mention the definitions of tragedy and comedy. A tragedy in most general terms has a sad ending and a comedy in most general terms has a happy ending. The definition of comedy throughout history was not the one we have today. Humor was certainly an aspect of comedy throughout all ages but it wasn't a necessity (according to what I have heard) all that was required was a happy ending. So we are trying to live in comedies because we would like happy endings, not because we want to make a joke of everything. Some circumstances where I think it could be a bad idea to go for both and: Some people believe that