Submit for your approval, a young Uncle Paul (the dude in that picture) still in his jams and ready to close his first deal. And in true rock star fashion, he is topless and wearing shades!

Note: Whenever I try a stunt like that today I scare the sh*t out of lots of people! 🙂

I’m not going to lie to you, that kid had a blast!

Every once in a while, he shows up, evicts the 45 year old me and reminds me that this is supposed to be fun!

How you doing in that department? Thought so!

So, not being one to ignore a shade wielding  4 year old, here are some ways for us to get back to the fun

Make A Note To Laugh Your Ass Off At Least Once Today!

Learning to lighten up is the first step!

Managers: What if your team listened to some comedy together before hitting the phones? Mighty hard to have call reluctance when you just pissed your pants.

Sales Rock Stars: Listen to something that makes you laugh and then understand that you are bound by the Code Of Castain’s Sales Playbook to make someone else laugh.

Everyone: Learn to laugh at yourself. Which reminds me (and I can’t believe I’m sharing this) One time when I was dating the hot chick in music (who later became Mrs Castain) I spilled some coffee on my lap and it wasn’t fun (unless you are into sick stuff like that) I ran into the bathroom to take a quick inventory and my boxers where still steaming from the coffee. Oddly enough, I found that funny and eventually we were able to have 3 kids together so no harm, no foul!

Take It Outside Girlfriend (trying to get away from “dude”)

Do you remember how cool it was when your teacher brought the class outside for a bit? Why can’t we do our work outside? Way to enjoy the Fall my friend.

Managers: Have that meeting outside. Conference rooms suck this time of year!

Sales Rock Stars: Bring a beach chair and make some calls outside. Life stinks when you feel chained to a desk!

Jedis Who Work From Home: Get out on the patio. I do all my coaching calls from “Patio De Castain” and the sun feels good on my balding head!

Whistle While You Work

I love to have some music going in the background to keep impending hitches from infiltrating my giddy up!

Check out this cool playlist for ideas or consider a free website like http://www.accuradio.com/

Ride Endorphin Waves

Endorphins produce a natural “high” and make you feel just awesome!

Take a walk: Get up, unchain yourself from that desk and take a walk at lunchtime.

Kick that bad boy up a notch: Invite some co workers.

Move When You Make Calls: Get up and move. Doing so gets those endorphins going and your prospect will think “Who’s this energetic, life lovin mo’fo?”

Attack Your “To Do” list: The act of checking things off your list produces endorphins . . . reason #700 to stop procrastinating!

Surprise The Team

How about some ice cream or a cake with something funny written on it?

Get some fresh fruit for your meeting or to have in your break room . . . just because!

Hand out a $5 Starbucks card to someone on the team.

Get some balloons and have the team do their elevator speeches on helium. A true Jedi can perform under any set of circumstances 🙂

Sad, but true: One time when I worked for Dale Carnegie, my team ambushed me with these toy guns when I returned to a training session. That’s just the kind of stupid, childish crap that wakes up my inner stupid, childish self. You haven’t lived until your team shoots you with dollar store pistols!

Managers: Appoint a weekly “CFO” . . . Chief Fun Officer. Give them a small budget and task them with getting some fun back in the office!

And finally . . . Package all of this with a  and . . .

Catch yourself having fun today!

Hurry up, your inner kid is waiting!