Brianne Garcia

The world needs more people who don’t care to be particularly serious. If you like Katy Perry, listen to Katy Perry. If you want to tell someone they did badly, just tell them how and why, don’t write them a ‘progress report’ and break them down with scores of 5. If you want to like a movie, like it, but don’t worry about being wrong or right. If you’re at a work function, and it’s late, and you’re tired, and you’re not feeling like drinking, don’t drink, go home, get snuggly and watch Braveheart. If you want to ask a sales prospect whether they want something, just tell them how it’ll work and how it’ll help them, don’t give them eighteen bullet points about it. Be serious at funerals. Be serious in the court room. Be serious when you’re in hospital. But don’t be when you are writing an email to a friend, or a client you’ve known for years. I’m not suggesting turn every professional email into a 15-year-old’s Livejournal scrawl, but good lord, loosen up a bit. The pang of seriousness that permeates our very existence is one borne of anxiety – let go, be free, be yourself, and most likely nothing bad will happen to you. In fact, most people will appreciate being talked to directly. Or not, and you’ll know you’re in the wrong field or have the wrong friends