Talking About Joy

I’ve been researching, thinking, writing, and talking about joy for the past few months though it’s something that I have focused on for a long time, specifically how to live with more joy. Joy can be one of those nebulous concepts so let’s start with the experiential.

Where joy is found is unique to each person. The potential for joy can be found in many places-  a piece of music, nature, your dog, or the laughter of a baby. It fills you with awe and wonder and leaves you with so much bubbling up inside that it you might find yourself in a puddle of tears. You can’t force it and you can’t manufacture it; all you can do is make yourself available to receive it. There’s so much more that can be said about joy, but instead, let me tell you about today’s experience of joy.

Today I met Barry Shore. Barry calls himself the Ambassador of Joy (!!!) and when his podcast opens, it is full of life music with a big sign ”WELCOME TO LAS VEGAS”. Barry lives in Henderson, NV, and hosts a podcast called THE JOY OF LIVING.  Immediately,I knew this was going to be an upbeat conversation. But I was totally unprepared for what greeted me when I was let out of the virtual green room and into the podcast studio. Barry’s infectious hello and introductory comments felt like a dozen a bottles of Don Perignon had just been opened. Barry is effervescent, gleeful, and yes, a tad bit zany. This man walks what he talks.
Our conversation covered a lot of ground as you will hear when it is released. My takeaways in our convo:
•              Barry had the ability to take me from a place of happy/content/calm to delight/energized/joy in less than three minutes just because of what he poured out from the minute he met me.
•              Barry’s intent listening to what I had to share, confirmed by his targeted follow-up questions, led to a real give and take and not talking “at” instead of “with” each other.
•              Barry was not, for a single second, focused on himself. He was 100% focused on his viewers and me, his guest.

My learnings from my Barry visit are very simple:
1.       How you show up for other people can have a powerful impact on them.
2.       How you show up is completely within your own control.
3.       How you show up takes some self-reflection.