The Laughter Clinic

Life Skills Masterclass Part 2: Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking, and Decision Making.

• Mark McConville • Season 2 • Episode 7

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In Part 2 of our Life Skills Masterclass Series Mark and Jodi break down the thinking trio, Critical Thinking, Creative Thinking and Decision Making.
Learn how you can evaluate information, spark creative ideas, and choose with intent. Along the way we unpack bias, sleep, and a simple matrix that turns overwhelm into action.

In this episode: 
• Defining critical thinking and why evidence and sources matter 
• Spotting confirmation and availability bias in social feeds 
• Curiosity questions that test assumptions and agendas 
• The role of anecdotes versus data in real life 
• Creative thinking as an everyday skill, not just art 
• SCAMPER and the 20 ideas drill for generating options 
• Guilt, self-care and a story that reframes assumptions 
• Decision fatigue, procrastination and the sleep-hormone link 
• A practical decision matrix with weighted criteria 
• Integrating evaluate, create, and decide for better life choices

Based on the World Health Organization's Life Skills framework.

If you've enjoyed this episode, please share it with your friends, leave a comment, like, subscribe, all of that sort of stuff

For More Info on Jodi Allen:
https://www.jodiallennutrition.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/jodi-allen-944a76138/
https://www.youtube.com/@jodiallenyoga
Insta: @jodiallennutrition


Next episode: The Connection Trio — Effective Communication, Interpersonal Relationships, and Empathy.

Website: www.thelaughterclinic.com.au

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@thelaughterclinicAus

"If you or someone you know needs support, please contact one of these Australian mental health services. In an emergency, always call 000."

Lifeline Australia
Phone: 13 11 14 (24/7)
Web: lifeline.org.au

Suicide Call Back Service
Phone: 1300 659 467 (24/7)
Web: suicidecallbackservice.org.au

Beyond Blue
Phone: 1300 22 4636 (24/7)
Web: beyondblue.org.au

Kids Helpline (for people aged 5-25)
Phone: 1800 55 1800 (24/7)
Web: kidshelpline.com.au

MensLine Australia
Phone: 1300 78 99 78 (24/7)
Web: mensline.org.au

SANE Australia (complex mental health issues)
Phone: 1800 18 7263
Web: sane.org

QLife (LGBTIQ+ support)
Phone: 1800 184 527 
Web: qlife.org.au

Open Arms (Veterans & Families Counselling)
Phone: 1800 011 046 (24/7)
Web: openarms.gov.au

1800RESPECT (sexual assault, domestic violence)
Phone: 1800 737 732 (24/7)
Web: 1800respect.org.au

Headspace (youth mental health, ages 12-25)
Phone: 1800 650 890 
Web: headspace.org.au

13YARN (Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander crisis support)
Phone: 13 92 76 (13YARN) (24/7)
Web: 13yarn.org.au

Music by Hayden Smith
https://www.haydensmith.com


Welcome & Series Context

SPEAKER_00

Welcome to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with comedian and pseudologist Mark McCombill, bringing you practical, evidence-based self-care strategies, the latest research in mental health, along with conversations that inspire, educate, and entertain. This is the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McConville.

Framing The Thinking Trio

SPEAKER_04

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, or friends and family, wherever you are listening around the planet to the Life Skills Masterclass series of the Laughter Clinic Podcast. Jodie Allen joining me again for episode number two. How are you going, Jodie? I'm great. Happy to be here. Happy to be here. Happy to have you here. So uh so for those of you that tuned in last week to episode one of the Life Skills Masterclass, you would know that we covered the foundation trio of self-awareness and coping with stress and problem solving. And this week, JD Jodie, sorry, we are talking about thinking. We're all about thinking this week, aren't we?

SPEAKER_01

Yes. Critical thinking, creative thinking, and decision making.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. Because we've all got decisions that we've got to make, don't we?

SPEAKER_01

Yes, we do.

SPEAKER_04

So talk to us about these three skills, Jodie, and why they all go together, these three.

SPEAKER_01

Well, I look at we look at these skills that well, they're not just for leaders. So we're all making decisions, you know. Can we the average person makes up to between 33,000 and 35,000 decisions a day, research says? Uh around 200 of those are around food. I reckon 10,000 of mine are around food, but just saying. But we're looking at the so we've got critical thinking, it helps us to evaluate and analyse. Creative thinking helps us to generate options.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

And decision making helps us to make a choice out of those. So an informed choice. An informed choice. Yes, nice, nice. So I like that. Yes, yes, nice, nice. Different, unusual. So these skills are gonna be.

SPEAKER_04

I have been called both of those things too, actually.

SPEAKER_01

So these skills are gonna help us build on our episode one foundation.

What Critical Thinking Really Means

SPEAKER_04

Awesome. So uh yeah, great. I love it. And I love the fact that once again we've got three that interlock beautifully together, three life skills. So, what is critical thinking is where we're gonna kick off. So, critical thinking has been described as an ability to question, to acknowledge and test previously held assumptions, and to recognize ambiguity, to examine, interpret, evaluate, reason and reflect, and to make informed judgments, you know, and decisions. Well, really, you're making informed decisions here is what we're talking about. And to clarify and to justify your position when you I'll give you the I think what is a perfect example of s of how you can sum up critical thinking is uh a lawyer. A lawyer is being one of the reasons I think lawyers make great comedians they do, in actual fact. Lawyers make lawyers make great comics because they understand the art of rhetoric. Right? They understand the importance of being able to argue both sides of one situation.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

They're trained in it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I never thought of it like that.

SPEAKER_04

That's critical thinking, you know. Do you uh do you do you argue for the defendant or do you have argue against the defendant?

SPEAKER_01

You know, yeah, and you've got to be able to they have to be prepared for what's coming from the other side. That's right.

SPEAKER_04

And you know, and I think that's I think critical thinking, I think that's an excellent example of of what it would be like in the real life, you know what I mean? Being able to evaluate information objectively, you know, is a big thing. So critical thinkers question the information sources that they're getting as well, which is a big thing, you know, like we're constantly being bombarded with news and all this sort of stuff. From like I I I uh I did an episode a couple of weeks ago which was should we watch the news? Oh you know and that's a big one. Yeah, it is a big one. And you know, talking about what are the sources of your news and what are the you know, but in in this instance, Critical Thinker, we're talking about what are the sources of your information. Yeah. You know, I think going to uni, one of the big things it really highlighted for me was the importance of evidence.

SPEAKER_01

Don't we? Yeah, yeah. Because we're in an information overload uh world. Yeah, where are we getting our sources from is uh very important.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, evidence. Evaluate evidence. This is this is where we're critically thinking here, my friends, and and we're drawing logical conclusions on the evidence that we've found, you know. So that's where we're we're critically thinking, evaluating different biases, evaluating different uh, you know, different sides of the same question. So yeah, it's it's because we do we do have cognitive biases, don't you think?

Bias, Algorithms & News Overload

SPEAKER_01

Yes. So I always talk about this when I'm talking about nutrition, you know, confirmation bias. So that's often we will seek out information that is already aligns with our what our current beliefs are. And in the state in the way of nutrition, if you know, I I want to go keto, we'll you'll find all the information. If you look for it, you'll find all, you know, what's amazing about it, what's great for it. You'll find all of that if you're seeking that out and you believe that that's the best, you know, diet that you want to try as an example. So we will often, I mean, you can see that, you know, without going too deep into the pol the political world right now, is people will often already have a belief system or who they're aligned with, and they will seek out all the information that confirms their belief and confirmation bias. Yeah. And uh the availability bias too is you know, we can often just accept whatever information is in front of us, especially if you use social media as an example. You only have to look at one video and then you know the algorithm will go, oh. Oh, they like videos of that. Yes. Most of mine are of cats and dogs doing crazy. That's right. I do I do remember that that thankfully, thankfully, that is a lot of my feed because they make me chuckle. Um and your own little laughter library. My own little laughter library. So, you know, I think so. For me, I'm going to that's increasing the availability of that information. So I'm going to keep seeing it come up. And you know that, you know, that happens a lot in whatever. If you're going down a political doom scrolling at the moment, your feed will be, you know, whatever's initially started attracting your attention, it will all be directed at that. So then you can be getting a very biased information that already matches what I was talking about, our confirmation bias. So it then becomes very hard for us to make informed decisions about what we even believe in when we're only exposed to one viewpoint.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. And it all that along those lines, it also circles back to something that I did bring up in the in the should you watch the news episode was with all of this information, and like you said, the algorithm showing you this, that, and the next, you know. And there was a mate of mine that brought this up, is and it was like, well, you gotta ask yourself at some point, am I being informed here or am I being manipulated?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yes.

SPEAKER_04

You know, which is a whole which is a whole other podcast, you know. But because because, you know, we could really go down that rabbit hole for it. But here we're talking about, you know, we're talking about analysing information, you know, critical thinking, because there's it it can be information overload, it can be too much sometimes, can't it?

SPEAKER_01

And even um, it's not just politics, it's even what we buy. I went to visit one of my girlfriends, and it's hilarious because we obviously our Instagram feeds with similar cleaning products and things and and olive oil. I'm like, I got that. Yeah, I've got that. You find that on Instagram. I'm like, oh my God, we've been so sucked into the marketing vortex because I'm like, oh, that's so cute. Yeah, I've got that. Yeah, Instagram. Yeah, Instagram. That doesn't really work. Instagram. And we're like, oh, we've just been so sucked into it. But it's, you know, what it's popping up. Oh, you know, Jody likes clean, natural cleaning products. We're just gonna, here's a new one. Oh yeah, I'll buy that. Um, oh, new olive oil. Oh, yes, I'll try that. Yeah, so we're constantly being force-fed, you know, marketing and political agendas and and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, it's a rabbit warren, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04

Oh, it's too much. So let's talk about how we how we critically analyze like some questions for qu you know, like being critical. Uh sorry, being questioning. Yeah, you know, questioning information is being critic is critical thinking, really, isn't it? At the end of the day.

SPEAKER_01

And you know, another word I like to use is curiosity.

SPEAKER_04

Oh curiosity. Yeah, I I I love that. How can we get that on a bubble?

SPEAKER_01

I love having conversations with people and and opening up curiosity about things and having healthy debate about things and that as well. But it's if we want to be hard line, you know, what is the critical things we need to ask ourselves and critical questions, but being a bit curious as well about what is the source of the information that is in front of me. And we do this a lot in evidence-based practice.

SPEAKER_04

Is it a trustworthy source?

SPEAKER_01

Is it a trustworthy source?

SPEAKER_04

And the the just on that, the because you do an we've both done enough research on different topics over the years to know that if you really wanted to, you could find a research study that will argue for this X, Y, and Z, and you'll find a research study that will equally and as diligently argue against X, Y, and Z. Yeah. You know, and so critical thinking is very important when it comes to this sort of stuff, isn't it? Really?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And I'll always go, you know, to the end of the study, who paid for the study?

SPEAKER_04

Biases, yeah.

Trustworthy Evidence & Who Paid

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. And yeah. You know, how many participants are in the study? You know, sometimes, oh, we studied eight people and we've come to this conclusion. Well, that's, you know, that might need some further study. So that's it. It's, you know, what's the source of the information? Who is saying this? What's their expertise? What's my saying that my dad says about an expert?

SPEAKER_04

It's a drip under pressure. No, uh, an ex is a has been and a drip, an a spurt is a drip under pressure. Well, I mean, used to say the same thing, obviously. It's much more never call yourself an expert. I'm like, all right, no worries.

SPEAKER_01

You will not see in any bio anywhere where I will call myself an expert.

SPEAKER_04

I might have written in the bio Joey and I'm an expert.

SPEAKER_01

No, no, no, man. Dad's gonna have a go at me about that. So um, yeah, and and what is their agenda? What is the agenda of the person or the product or you you know, this information source? Are they marketing something to you? Are they selling you something? Yeah, or are they trying to get you to sign up? You you know, what what is it's it's digging deeper with that? New olive oil. Do you need this olive oil? Yes, I do. Go through gallons of it.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and then You know you're supposed to cook with it, right? Not bathing it.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, it's great for your skin as well.

SPEAKER_04

Okay, all right. Moving right along.

SPEAKER_01

Moving right along. What's the evidence? Is it opinion or fact? Which is always an interesting one. Can I can I another favorite of my dad's about and it'll say, is this opinion or fact opinion or fact? And my dad's I say this probably every day. You know, opinions are like arseholes, everyone's got one. That's right. It's my favorite, uh, you know, because the amount of people that want to give me their opinion.

SPEAKER_04

Is my footnote to that saying?

SPEAKER_01

But it's so true. Everyone's got an opinion, and but you know, is it based on a feeling or emotion or is it based on facts? What is the data, you know, as evidence-based, we love we love a bit of data. Um, is the evidence credible? You know, not to take away also from anecdotal evidence. There's plenty of sometimes there's things I recommend that there might be not whole wealth of scientific evidence behind it, if it's been something that's been around for, you know, forever and a day and anecdotally people find improvement from it.

SPEAKER_04

Well, that's that's where that's where I live in the laughter clinic space, you know, like because uh I I got stuff. I wanted to go and do a PhD into, you know, using humour as a protective fact, you know, getting it included in the list and all this sort of stuff. And I'm like, I want to be out there in the world, but you know, doing that as I'm not an academic, right? Yeah so I have I have tons of evidence, but it's it so much of it it is anecdote because I've got I've got people coming up to me at live presentations going, you know, this was great, I really needed, you know, you've seen it when we come out and do it with the program, you know, the people that you know, and that's still evidence.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

You know, that is really.

SPEAKER_01

If we were doing a real world study at the time, it would be we've got 15 participants that are all laughing. That is, you know, that's our that's our study group. Um, you know, we're we're seeing it in front of us.

SPEAKER_04

So, you know, yeah, it can be So when you say, you know, when we're talking about evidence, you know, like is the evidence credible is something that is really, you know, like every everybody's got to make that own decision themselves, really, at the end of the day, don't they? They really need to Yeah.

Assumptions, Alternatives & Consequences

SPEAKER_01

And another big thing too is what are the assumptions? You know, what's being assumed as true? Are these assumptions valid? What if the assumptions are wrong? Often we make, you know, decisions based on an assumption that can be completely incorrect with without looking deeper into it. Alternative explanations. This is also, you know, come comes from making assumptions in that as well. Could this be interpreted differently? What other perspectives exist? And am I considering all angles, which is, you know, super important when again ties into awareness, self-awareness?

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Am I making assumptions? Have I considered the perspective of say it's involving another person? Have I have I thought about their perspective in this? And what are the implications? If it's true, what follows, what are the consequences? And does this make logical sense to me? So sometimes we're taking in information and in our gut or our intuition, which we often can ignore, but that doesn't really feel or sound right to me. But we may, we may gloss over that and not tune into it. And you know, how often people say, I've made the wrong decision there, I should have listened to my gut. You know, like there's a couple of big decisions in my life where I look back and think, I should have listened to my gut there, because my gut was saying, Jody, this is not probably the best decision to make. But I then come up with other oh no, no, it's not that bad. No, it'll be okay, you know, where I should have listened to my gut. And I reckon a lot of people will resonate with that.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. Yeah, because our gut, you know, our gut and our head are constantly in, you know, like communication. Logic versus, you know, what the heart feels or whatever it is, you know what I mean? Like, and it's just yeah, I think that's a battle that's going on amongst billions of people out there right now. Yeah. Going, should I, shouldn't I, do it, don't do it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, we get in our head.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you know, and the unfortunate thing is is that it leads to there's been so many podcasts I've listened to recently that where they talk about, you know, regret. You know, do you regret do you regret making no, what was it? The regret comes from not doing anything. You know, like understanding that the decision to not make a decision is is a decision in itself.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

Creative Thinking As Everyday Practice

SPEAKER_04

Or something or something along those lines. We'll get to decision making shortly. That was me bitted creative thinking, which is our next topic, right? So I was putting all those words together beautifully. So uh yeah, it I think one of the big things about critical thinking is looking at as many viewpoints as you can, isn't it? You know, like trying to trying to, you know, if you're 100% on one thing and you're only seeing that, you know, if you're really analysing something critically, you've got to flip it on its head and go, well, if I if I was looking at this from the other person's point of view, yeah, or that other company's point of view, or whatever, what does that look like? You know? Yeah. And it's it's it's real world stuff, you know. We've got to take into consideration how the other side's feeling, you know. That is or or how how evidence can be stacked to support something, how evidence can be stacked to against it, like you're saying, you know, what's the agenda, what's going on, what's behind the scenes.

SPEAKER_01

So yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Critical thinking, very important. It helps us evaluate, but at the same time, while we're evaluating ideas, you know, and situations, we also need to generate new ones, right? Yeah, which is the beautiful segue into creative thinking.

SPEAKER_01

Yes.

SPEAKER_03

Love creative thinking.

SPEAKER_04

This is this is my jam.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, is it? Because I found I found I found after being, you know, a young person and in the military, I found creative thinking on the other side as a civilian and going into business, I found it really, I found it really hard. Because from a teenager, I was told what to do, when to do it. And then when I was a supervisor, I was, you know, this is the job we gotta do. You guys are gonna do that. This is our role. So for me, there wasn't a lot of um exposure to creative thinking or thinking outside of the box.

SPEAKER_04

Isn't that interesting? Because That's my that's my position. From an outsider's point of view, that has had nothing ever to do with any military training whatsoever. It would like I said, from an outsider's point of view, I I would think that they would want to train their uh recruits in the military to be able to think creatively. Because you've got to, you know, yes, you've got to critically analyze, you know, situations that can be life and death, but sometimes it's gonna take a creative decision to someone thinking creatively to get yourself out of it out of the shit.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I think um absolutely, and I'm not sure, you know, obviously I've been out for a long time and I'm only going through through my experience, but yeah, that was just for for me and my exposure and the time and the places that I worked, it wasn't a lot of creative thinking. Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04

Well, let's talk about creative thinking because you know it's not just for artists, you know, because creative thinking is generated all around us. Like when you're cooking a meal, that's that's creative thinking. You know, what's gonna what's gonna go with what and how you're gonna do this, and you know, when you put it on the plate, how you want it to look, or whatever, if you're you know, remodeling your. How you know you've just moved house and you're setting up your new lounge room. That's creative thinking. You know, how you're going, where are you going to hang that painting on the wall? Or you know, creative thinking is everyone, everyone's creative. At some point in your life, you are using the creative thinking skill, you know. And it is it is a skill, it is a life skill. It's you know, some people say it's a talent, you know, you're naturally talented or whatever, but thinking creatively can be learnt, you know. That's why you have you know, arts degrees and design degrees and all this sort of stuff and learning about creativity. It's yeah, it's I I think living a creative life is I love it. Like I I believe that I live quite a creative life because you know, aside from doing stand-up and performing, you know, live, you know, to putting these podcasts together, I have my bonsai trees, right? So don't judge me, I like my bonsai trees, you know, and even like my big fish tank, I've got a 550 litre fish tank, and even when I'm setting up all the rocks and all that sort of stuff, that's all in the zone. I'm zoning out, yeah. You know, it's all creative, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

You know, and it's giving yourself the opportunity to tap into your creative creativity too, isn't it? Do you think as often you know we can be quite creative when we're young, but then life gets in the way. I often see participants on our program that, oh, I you know, I used to love drawing, or I used to love crocheting, or I used to love painting, and I used to love playing music, but life kind of gets in the way, and they, you know, let go of their creativity.

SPEAKER_04

I think that can have a lot to do with your surroundings, you know, because your surroundings, you're either surrounded by people that will encourage you to be creative and support your creativity, you know.

SPEAKER_01

It's not always the case.

SPEAKER_04

No, no, it's not always the case, you know. What are you doing that for?

Guilt, Self‑Care & A Turning Point

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know? And it can be also be seen too, I sometimes with the guise of, you know, if they've got a young family, you know, for me to do my creative endeavours, it takes me away. You know, so it's well, if this is a resetting, being in that creative space is really good for you and your mental health, then, you know, is there a way that you can fit it in, you know, without the guilt around it? So it can't it can be challenging for some people to be able to make the space to tap into their creative thinking.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. I like the fact that you brought up the guilt there because we want to really want to just I know it's getting off topic here for the creative thinking, but you know, we really implore people to not guilt trip themselves when they're doing something for themselves, self-care wise. Yeah, it's it's it's it's hard. It is hard. It is hard. And you've got a family and you've got little kids, you've got to look after and all that sort of stuff. And you know, like I've had so many, I've had so many people over the years go, mate, I haven't got time to go and do that, I haven't got time to go and play golf, I haven't got time to do this. Yeah, you know, all this shit going on. And and it's interesting that I'm gonna tell this story. Uh it does get off topic, but I think it's an important story to tell. Because it can highlight you what what's in our head versus what everybody else is seeing. Right? Yeah. So I was working on a cruise ship after the gig, you know, because I mentioned about laughed clinic stuff, a couple of days later I was still on the ship and I had this gentleman come up and we were sitting there chatting away, and he was telling me how the cruise is the first thing that he'd done with his family after he'd been in hospital for a year and a half because he'd attempted suicide.

unknown

Oh goodness.

SPEAKER_04

Right. That's a long time. Yeah. And the the cruise was his first thing out with the family and all this sort of stuff, and and we ended up chatting for like, you know, three or four hours one afternoon, and we're talking about, you know, I was saying about, you know, he was talking about what led him up to wanting to make that decision and all this sort of stuff, and the feeling of overwhelm and everything's going on, and he couldn't all these balls who's trying to juggle in the air and all this sort of stuff. And and I was saying, so you know, so what what were you doing for yourself while you were doing all this stuff, you know, you had this big business, you had all these employees, you had family, you you know, your kids, sport, all this sort of, you know, you why you you're doing everything for everyone. What where was where was your time in there? And it's like, oh fuck man, I don't have time, I didn't have time for doing that. I'm too busy doing everything for everyone else, you know? Yeah. And it was coming from, you know, it was coming from a genuine guy who was just there doing everything for everyone else. But it got to the point where the series of circumstances led him to the feeling of overwhelmed to, you know, wanting to take his own life. Yeah, I know, it's hectic. So and so at the end of our conversation, I said, Well, mate, I really, I really, you know, I'm so happy that you're here to start with. And and secondly, you know, I'd really like you to try and explore doing something for yourself. You know, there must be something that you like, man.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And he said, Oh, you know, I said, what about throughout the years? There's been some he goes, Oh, yeah, you know, I like motorcycles. And I'm like, oh yeah, I'm you know, I was riding a motorcycle at the time, and I said, Oh yeah, what sort of bike you got? And he's like, Oh, this, and he was a trail bike guy, you know, and I'm like, Oh, okay, cool. And he goes, Yeah, I've got this beautiful, beautiful, you know, trail bike. I said, When was the last time you rode it? And he goes, Road it, man, I don't even know if it'll even start. You know, it's been in the shed for that long.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And I said, Well, you know, for what it's worth, man, I said, I think, you know, you really want to do yourself a favor and you want to, you know, get the bike out and and maybe go for get it started and go for a ride.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, like aside from, you know, I'm a advocate for motorcycling because, you know, I love mo I love motorcycles and I love riding bikes, and and you know, there's an old saying that you never see a motorcycle sitting outside a psychologist's office. You don't, you don't, they're not there, you know why? Because they're not there. They're outright. That's right. And so he said, Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, and he kind of blew it off at the time, right? And and he's because at the time I remember him saying, Oh, you know, my wife's, you know, might be on my back about it, whatever.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And I've got to wind this story up. So anyway, fast forward about a month later. About a month later, he sends me, he contacts me via Facebook and he and he messages me by my comedian, Bart McConville comedian page, right? Hey mate, how you going? Don't know if you remember me from the cruise, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, as soon as I said, Yeah, man, I remember you. How you going? And he said, I just want you to, I just want to let you know that after getting off the ship, about a week later, I got my bike out of the shed and and I was, you know, in the garage and I was working on it, I was pulling it all apart, and my wife came in and she said, What are you doing? And I told her that I was getting my bike fixed because I wanted to start riding it again. And her and he said to me in the in the message, he goes, and her exact words were, Well, thank fuck for that.

SPEAKER_01

There you go.

SPEAKER_04

You know.

SPEAKER_01

See, he'd made an assumption That's right. That she wouldn't be happy about it.

SPEAKER_04

That's right. And she and she said, Thank fuck, you're going out and you're doing something for yourself. Yeah. Right? And then he and then like, and he goes, Oh, and I've since found a local trail bike riding club, and I've joined this club, and now I go riding every Saturday, and it's awesome.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. Because often partners we want our, you know, we want our partners to be happy because when they're happier, they show up happier and they're better partners and dads and you know. So um Yeah, we can often make an assumption that taking time for ourselves is, you know, gonna create more problems and you know, the the benefits outweigh the cost kind of thing.

SPEAKER_03

We've really sidetracked ourselves from creative thinking.

SPEAKER_04

Um but yeah, it's it's relevant.

SPEAKER_01

No, but it is it is relevant because it shows that, you know, look look how much how much happier he is. If he had done that as a preventative maybe years beforehand, exactly, he wouldn't have got to that such a low point. Yeah. Um, and yeah, self-care is not selfish, is the tagline. That's another sticker.

Tools For Creativity: SCAMPER & Ideas

SPEAKER_04

No. There you go, yes. So creative thinking, imagination, original material, thinking outside the box. Yeah, it's all cool, isn't it? Creative thinking. Yeah, love it. So creative thinking involves generating heaps of ideas, right? Okay, so like I know when I'm working on bonsai trees, you know, you might start a with a shrub, and then you gotta kind of you gotta have your imagination going and get creative, and you and you spin it around and you go, where would be the front, where would be the side, which branch I would I keep, which branch would I, you know, because there's a whole formula to doing designing a bonsai tree, and you know, so generating heaps of different ideas is one thing, but then being flexible about the ideas that you've generated. Like the amount of times that I've thought, oh, this is gonna be great, and then halfway through it you've got to go, you know what? I've gotta change this, you know. Yeah, be flexible. Oh, as a comedian all the time, we're constantly tweaking things that we thought was gonna be, you know, you the amount of time there isn't a comedian on the planet, I reckon, that as it walked on stage, told some told a joke, the audience is died of the ass and they've thought to themselves, well, fuck it, it's funny, I don't know. I better pivot, you know, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Pivot, pivot.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. You know, so uh generate heaps of ideas is being creative and the ability to to be flexible with those ideas and unique, you know, like something unique. And and then when you you know, there's one thing about creating an idea, but then developing it, you know, like if we as as a comedian, as a writer, you know, like if we you come up with an idea on something, you go, I think I think this could be a comedy bit here about this story or whatever, and then you just gotta write it out and write it out and write it out until you you know you generate as many ideas about this topic as you can possibly generate.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know what I mean? Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04

And yeah, it's it's a skill that you you can learn it, you can learn it, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and I think um, you know, it's often what gets in the way of our creativity is like we talked about the guilt, but there's also the the self-criticism, the fear of judgment. Fear of judgment, the expectation that often no one else is putting expectations on us. It's you know, it's often the expectation that we put on ourselves, whereas, you know, no one else really cares that much. You know, what's the saying? No one's thinking about you as much as you think they're thinking. You know, you're got another bumper sticker?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, don't um I think, yeah, well, fear of judgment is probably one of the biggest things that kills creativity.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I imagine that must be really hard as a comedian initial barrier to just go out there and do your thing and and not try like the fear of judgment from your audience or you know, it's it's different it's different now to what it was twenty five years ago.

SPEAKER_04

In what way? There's a lot more judgment now. I see, yeah, with the topics. All comedians are being judged. We're all being judged now.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, when I started in 1998 and in the, you know, in the year in the 2000s when I started going from amateur to pro and there were no limits then to what was you just you know people were smoking in bars and you people were smoking on stage and all you know, it was a different it's not that long ago, but it's a world away. Yeah, you know, and so there's a lot more scrutiny.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, so you have to be more considered about your topics.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, you know, but that's the thing, is it's one of those things that as a comedian, you know, I don't ever want to tell other people, other comics what they can and can't talk about. I just know what my theory is on the fact that, you know, your job is for the amount of time that you're on stage, you have one job and one job only. Make people laugh. Make them laugh. Three words, yeah, make them laugh.

SPEAKER_01

So it doesn't serve any purpose for you to, well, I'm gonna tell this joke anyway, even if it offends half the audience. It doesn't serve the purpose, does it?

SPEAKER_04

Your job is to make them laugh. Yeah. And if you want to be a full-time professional comedian whereas that is all that you do, you will adhere to those three words. Make them laugh. Spend the most amount of time on stage as possible making them laugh. And the easiest way to do that is to choose content that is going to relate to as many people in the audience as possible.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, kind of makes sense.

SPEAKER_04

Like brushing your teeth. You get a joke about brushing your teeth, everyone will relate to it.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, putting your pants, putting your socks on in the morning, something that everyone can relate to. You know what I mean? And and that's why it's always surprised. Like it surprises me when comics choose well, it I shouldn't say it surprises me. I understand that there's an im a need for comedians to get on stage and talk about politics and religion.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Right, okay?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, it's the two topics that we were told as kids, you know, you don't bring these up at a dinner table because they're so divisive, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

And to me, I've always avoided those topics as a comedian because I don't want to talk about something that's going to divide the audience.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that makes sense.

SPEAKER_04

I want to unite them, not divide them. So I don't talk about that. But I do believe that it is important that there are comedians out there talking about that sort of stuff because it needs to be, you know, made light of, or, you know, it needs to be, you know.

SPEAKER_01

Let them take the heat from the the people that don't like them. Yeah, like they're prepared for that. Yeah. That's their wheelhouse. That's it.

SPEAKER_04

And and they do it well. You know, a lot of the guys that do it do it well. You know what I mean? And so it's a and I think it's important. Like when when I'm on stage, I want people to forget about all the bullshit in the news for the 20 minutes, an hour, half an hour, whatever I'm on stage, and forget about all that stuff and talk about, you know, weird shit. Right? Which is your specialty. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03

Oh, good. Excellent. So you're gonna admit that they're good jokes there, you're not gonna say the other episode.

SPEAKER_04

Right?

SPEAKER_01

We'll let that go, dude. Yeah, I know.

SPEAKER_04

All right, I'm working on it. Anyway, moving along.

Decision Fatigue & Procrastination

SPEAKER_01

So what's what's this scamper technique that how comedians generate material?

SPEAKER_04

Well, this is this this is something, yeah, this is something that I've I've used in the past, right? So scamper stands for substitute, combine, adapt, modify, put to another use, eliminate or reverse, right? Okay. So this is, you know, we're talking about creative thinking. So yeah, I'll give you an example, combine, right? So, okay, so here's the thing. We've got the Olympics coming up. We've got the Olympics coming up in Brisbane, we're hosting the Olympics, right? It's gonna be a big deal. Everyone's cares about I don't care. Right, okay, because here's the thing is I think the Olympics need a rebranding, and because everyone goes, everyone's tuning out because the events are always the same, right? And I'm saying combine some of the events, right? Right, combine the combine the cycling with the javelin. Fuck, so you mean any of those suckers you can take out, right? Combine the high diving with the water polo, fuck that is entertainment right there, you know. So, yeah, combining things, modifying things, you know, like I I'll give you an example of another joke that I wrote, one of my first ever jokes, where I might an example of modifying something, right? So if I said to you, I've just taken possession of a brand new straight off the production line, never been driven, what do you think is the next word coming out of my mouth? Car. There you go. But it wasn't. What I was saying is, I've just taken possession of a straight off the production line, never been driven, wheelie bin.

unknown

Wheelie bin.

SPEAKER_04

Right? Boom, you're laughing. There you go.

SPEAKER_01

Simple, yeah, effective. That's it. Okay.

SPEAKER_04

I know what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Well, okay, fair, fair gag.

SPEAKER_01

Come on. Oh, I love it.

SPEAKER_04

So, yeah, there's all different ways that you can get creative, you know.

SPEAKER_01

So that's that's in the open to it as well, isn't it?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and that's that's from a writing perspective, you know. But like I said, creativity is, you know, even when you you redesign, you know, I would say that I'm quite a fan, I get quite creative when I'm loading the dishwasher.

SPEAKER_01

I am I am a ninja at that shit. I'm a master of dishwasher stoker.

SPEAKER_04

I am like ninja level status.

SPEAKER_01

And and are you do you go along and if someone's stacked your dishwasher, you just have a quick peek and restack it?

SPEAKER_04

Every time.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, me too. If my kids stack the dishwasher, I'm like so grateful. I'm like, I'm so grateful that you've done that. Yeah, thank you so much. I'm just gonna go and restack it now. Uh so what's this, the 20 ideas exercise?

SPEAKER_04

Okay, so uh this is something that uh you'll be a fan of this journal journaling.

SPEAKER_01

Oh yeah.

SPEAKER_04

You know, so like if you've got a if you've got a problem, right, or something that you want to, you know, generate ideas for, you set yourself a task of force yourself to generate 20 possible solutions. Right? Yeah. Okay. Now, if you've ever done this as an exercise, this is, you know, this this exercise gets done a lot in leadership courses and that sort of stuff. Yeah. Right? Because it forces the five first five are obvious. Yeah. Right? Anything that you want to write down, bang, the first five are obvious. The second five get a little bit harder. The third five start to require some real thinking. Yeah. You know, like you're going, really, what the hell am I gonna write here? But the last five is where creativity really steps in, you know, because you've eliminated the obvious, you've eliminated the harder, you've eliminated stuff that you've thought about, and now you're it's forcing you. This exercise is forcing you to get creative on those final five ideas. And you don't don't judge yourself, don't judge, you know, just generate them. Just generate these ideas, and and quality, uh sorry, quantity will lead to quality.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. You know, like the first really pushing yourself a bit out of your comfort zone. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04

You're pushing yourself, you know. A lot of a lot of comedians use that, you know, they'll get an idea and they'll just write on it, you know. Like, see, but here's the thing is I I can't full disclosure, I can't say that that's a process that I use to write comedy because I'm not one of those gifted writers as a comedian that like I know I know so many talented comics that are so good at writing.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, you know, you can skill.

SPEAKER_04

You can that's right, you can sit them in a room and say, write a joke about this paper clip. You know, and you'll come back half an hour later and they'll have half a dozen jokes and they'll all be great. Why and I've never had that skill. My creativity comes my comic, comedian creativity comes from observing life, and and some a situation will happen to me or someone else, and I go, that's funny. Right?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that's your a lot happens in your routine, is the actual real things that have happened are hilarious.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah. So I'm hilarious now. Well, I was being generous.

SPEAKER_01

There we go.

SPEAKER_04

So so, and then what I do is because I I'm not gonna sit there and write it out because that's not my thing, I will chuck it in the memory bank, this story or this thing. I might write down just a dot point about an idea or a thing, right? And then I will find a way of slipping that uh thing into a conversation with three different strangers.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, you test it.

SPEAKER_04

I test it.

SPEAKER_01

Right, okay.

SPEAKER_04

Um and and people that don't know I'm a comedian. Yeah, I'm not sure. Right. It's important that because I can't do it with my mates, because I go, Are you trying to bid on me?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

Sleep, Hunger Hormones & Choices

SPEAKER_04

Right, okay. So I try and slip it into a general conversation where I'm uh I'm with people that I don't know, I'm at the shops, I'm at the service station, I'm wherever.

SPEAKER_01

And if you get a chuckle, you're on a winner.

SPEAKER_04

Yep, and if I can get three different groups of people to laugh at that thing, then I pretty much know from there it's stageworthy. And what that's also done is in those three instances, it's enabled me to figure out the tone, the timing, uh, the pace, yeah, the words, which ones are the punchlines that are landing with people. If if I can tag a punchline with something else, so in in In the time of road testing it, I've got it ready for the stage.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, cool. And did you come up with that yourself? That that process yourself?

SPEAKER_04

No, I don't. I probably I had a lot of mentors, different types of mentors when I started doing comedy. So I probably, and plus I was studying acting at the time, you know. So like I was kind of taking in, I was a bit of a sponge for everything.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, lots of you know, so different pieces of information. Yeah, yeah, great strategy.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so yeah, creative thinking, it's it's it's cool.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and generate generating options because then that leads us into decision making.

SPEAKER_04

Decision making. At some point we've got to make a decision.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, and as I was saying, I think at the beginning of the podcast, you know, we make possibly tens of thousands of decisions a day, and a lot of them are automatic and reactive. So, but with important decisions that we need to make, they need a more measured, systematic approach and giving ourselves, you know, some great options for helping us to make those decisions. And it's it's learnable this process. And, you know, we can the research shows that you know, a lot of them are fast, automatic, and like I said before, emotional, but we need this more slow, deliberate approach because d decision fatigue is is a real thing. I talk about it in nutrition and that as well, decision fatigue and willpower.

SPEAKER_04

So when you s when you say decision fatigue, that to me conjures up two aspects of decision fatigue. One that you're fatigued from having to make too many big decisions, yeah. Or dis or you're fatigued because you're finding yourself unable to make a decision.

SPEAKER_01

Well, they both, if you think about it, they're both feeding into each other depending on the context of say you've got a really big decision to make, and it it happened to me in time of divorce. It was this big, huge decision, and you're thinking it and you're thinking it and you're thinking it. And, you know, there's the fatigue comes from, I know I need to make a decision. It becomes so overwhelming, and you go through so many, you know, scenarios, and you, you know, there's a lot to think about when you're making a big decision, depending on what it is. We can get fatigue and then we and it often leads into procrastination. You know, because the decision becomes so overwhelming, and we get to a point where it it is so overwhelming we don't make a decision. And it just kind of Which is a decision in itself. Like you said earlier, yeah, it's a decision in itself.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah.

A Simple Decision Matrix

SPEAKER_01

So we're deciding not to decide. Not to decide. But we know I think the worst part about procrastinating and sitting on a big decision like that is that it really it the tension builds and the fatigue builds and it becomes, it can often, you know, metamorphose into this massive stress bucket. Because you're overanalyzing everything. Yeah, you're well, you're off you spend a lot of time in your head when you've got a big decision to make and you're not you're not ready or you haven't gone through a process of analyzing it, this decision, and it's just hovering. It's like a it's like a wearing a heavy backpack on your back that you just keep putting the the stress and this not making a decision just keeps getting heavier and heavier, this weight on your shoulders. Because nothing is happening to relieve that weight or getting you in the process of working towards making a decision because it if and wearing this heavy backpack of this humongous decision and delaying it affects your quality of life.

SPEAKER_04

Oh, yeah, absolutely. It affects sleep, it affects it affects Because you're lying in lying in bed at night trying to process what you're doing.

SPEAKER_01

So you're probably not sleeping, you know, it affects energy levels, it affects, and then if we're not sleeping and we've got low energy, it affects the decisions that we make around food. We know that poor sleep increases our hunger hormones. We're craving carbs, we're craving sugar, where it's very hard for us to make smart choices when we're in a decision fatigue, heavy backpack state. Is that right? They all feed into each other.

SPEAKER_04

So poor sleep management affects your decisions in relation to what you because you what your body correct is.

SPEAKER_01

So we know evidence shows that if you consistently have poor sleep, so say you're only having four or five hours sleep a night, it actually suppresses leptin, which is your it increases ghrelin, which is your hunger hormone, so I'm hungry, and decreases leptin, which is okay, I'm full now, I've had enough to eat. So you can do a lot of mindless eating, or as one of my kids causes it, causes it, you know, I'm I'm eating my feelings at the moment, you know, stress eating, but it's actually hunger hormones, these chemical hormones that are created in the gut from poor sleep. So it makes it very hard then. You know, often clients will say, I don't have any willpower. I'm like, well, okay, we're gonna shift the focus on off taking it off willpower. And what can we do to improve your sleep, which isn't going to improve your energy, which isn't going to improve your blood sugar regulation, your metabolism. So you're gonna be then in a less stressed state, making less decisions because you're not driven by making food decisions all day, which is really entiring in itself.

SPEAKER_02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

So that is, you know, sleep is such a big, you wouldn't think it, but it's um such a big part of yeah, decision making.

SPEAKER_04

So you know, I I'm a I I'm a big uh victim of anal uh analysis paralysis with too many options. Yeah, you know, I find myself really struggling sometimes with making a decision when I've got too many things to choose from. Yeah, you know, like I some I can totally be that guy with a menu going, I don't know what I want to do.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I saw that at lunchtime. You way overthought it.

SPEAKER_04

And then what did I end up having? The same as you to bear in mind.

SPEAKER_01

It was delicious, yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, so we got to So we gotta kind of what you're saying is we gotta get out of the emotional decision-making space.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. But but some decisions are emotional, you know, like I shouldn't say no, I don't think saying getting out of the emotional space is right because relationship decisions are emotional. Uh absolutely. But it's often, you know, like if you're avoidant, like I spent a lot of my life in avoidance. And, you know, as I was saying, um, was it our last podcast about, you know, the brain wants to conserve energy and it's, you know, going to that automatic place. And, you know, we get the perfection paralysis, decision paralysis, decision fatigue, all those, all those big words. We can, you know, definitely create a life that's harder for ourselves the longer that we delay these kind of things, even when there is emotion involved. And I think when we're avoidant, you know, the brain also wants us to keep us comfortable. So we avoid discomfort. Yeah. And often these big decisions that we make involve a level of discomfort.

SPEAKER_02

Right.

Instinct, Training & High‑Stakes Calls

SPEAKER_01

So then we off which often then leads into procrastination. Because what's procrastination? Procrastination is just avoiding something that makes us feel uncomfortable. So we end up perpetuating and you know, it just the wheel keeps spinning. Yeah. And sometimes, you know, we have to lean into a bit of discomfort, and it and it can be an emotional space and an emotional decision. Like when I had to say goodbye to my dog Peppa. That was, you know, that was a really difficult and painful decision. And I had to sit in the pain of that, but I knew it was the right thing to do. But often, you know, big ticket things like, you know, divorce or leaving a job, um, you know, I understand all of those things, how difficult those decisions can be.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah. You know. So, well, once again, the three life skills merge into each other, you know. So helping you make a decision, let's, you know, using the skills of critical thinking and creative thinking to generate your options. So let's let's talk about a bit of a decision-making matrix which might help people that have got some big decisions to make. So firstly, listing your options, what your options are when you've got to make a decision, you know, like I know we spoke about in it might have been the last episode about the pros and cons, you know, of um of something. So listing listing your options, which is use engages your creative thinking, brain, because you've got to lift them all out. And then and then identifying the criteria in these decisions in this decision is what's what really matters when you're making this decision, what is important to you? You know, what's an in what's an important outcome?

SPEAKER_01

Costs and benefits. Yeah, and that that's a critical because maybe if you're being critical, critically thinking it could the decision might come at a great cost, but of very little benefit. Or it could be of great cost, but also of great benefit and better quality of life. So, you know, how do we how do we reconcile, how do we reconcile that? How do we lean into that?

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's the weight criteria.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, well that's what you know, and this is this, you know, this isn't anything new. A lot of these decision-making matrixes have been around for all ages. So, you know, once you've got your list of options, you know, weighting them, you know, into one to ten is to the level of importance, you know. Like, um, you know, if you want to if your decision that you're trying to figure out is to leave your boss or uh leave your leave your workplace and you know that you're going to want it on the thing that decision on the options, it's like, well, I got this other job, but it pays less, you know, like where does income sit on your matrix? You know? Yeah. Do you is it number ten? Do you need that income? Or can you sacrifice the income for peace of mind and a better workplace and and maybe you know, income sits at number five or something, you know what I mean?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So so yeah, score each of each of your options that you come up with out of ten and then and then kind of you can then you've got a numerical value of of what it is that you want to uh you want to try and do because you know there are so many decisions in the past where in the end I have gone, you know, I've analyzed everything and I've sat on making the decision for a long time, and like most people listening, I probably knew the right thing to do right from the very start.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

Three months before I actually made the decision, I knew in myself that's the right thing to do, but it's too big a decision, so I don't do anything. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Or I analyze and I go, oh, maybe I could do this, or maybe I'll try that, or well, sometimes we try to talk ourselves out of it as well because you know, we're com you know, what are they what's the saying? Change happens when the discomfort of staying the same is greater than actually making the change.

SPEAKER_04

Something that's a big bumper sticker, that one. That's a bit of a word bumper sticker.

SPEAKER_01

It's a bit of a word salad.

SPEAKER_04

Change happens when what?

Integrating Evaluate, Create, Decide

SPEAKER_01

So it's change happens when the discomfort of where we are becomes greater than staying where we are. So when it's, you know, so we're staying safe right now. I might not be saying it very well. But it's, you know, the dis we to get into change, often staying where we are is going to be more painful than the pain involved in making the decision. So often we see in yeah, in change and habit change is that a person won't actually commit or move forward until staying where they are is really uncomfortable and it's greater than what the effort of making that change is. So, you know, there'll be a time where that, you know, decision is made, something will often tip us over the edge. You know, but yeah.

SPEAKER_04

I like the idea of how one of the things I ask people to do is, you know, in the what are you looking forward to exercise in the next two days, two weeks, two months. And you can also equate that to decision making, can't you? You know, how's this decision gonna how am I gonna affect how's how am I gonna feel about this decision in 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, 10 months, 10 years, whatever?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah. I I think yeah. My my dad used to use it with me from when I was young, and I'd be worrying about expensive repairs on my car or something, and he'd go, in four years' time, was a tactic he used for himself and and mum. Are you gonna be worried about this? Are you gonna remember how much this costs? And then as time goes on, you go, yeah, I'm not going to remember how much, you know, this cost, or you know, yeah. So in 10 minutes, how am I gonna feel about it? In 10 minutes, in 10 months, in 10 years. It's a really helpful question because you know, you know what? In 10 months, in 10 years, I'm not gonna remember this. It's um yeah, so true. It's it shows what really, what really matters.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, it can be, you know, I feel sorry for the I really do feel sorry for the people I or feel sorry for is the wrong I empathize with the people that have to make massive decisions that affect the lives of so many other people. You know, like we you know, we applaud doctors and paramedics and all this who make split life decisions to save people's lives and all that sort of stuff, which is, you know, they're a lot of the time they're making their decisions out of instinct, you know, because of their level of training and all that sort of stuff. It comes steps in and their decision making is kind of automatic. You know, like I think the human I I'm fascinated by human engineering, you know, like a big cricket fan, and I unlike some people here, I'm actually not bad with hand-eye coordination. I'm pretty good with a bat of the ball, right? It's one of us, right? But it fascinates me that we occupy a body, right, that I'll give you an example in cricketing terms, right? So the bowler bowls the ball and the batsman hits it, and he's hit it towards a fielder who's gonna catch it, right? And so the bowler's bowled the ball at you know, somewhere between 140 kilometers an hour, the batsman's hit it, and he's hit it to a player, and within a millisecond, a micro millisecond, that fielder, his brain has calculated the speed of the ball, the trajectory of the ball, where that ball is going to be at any point in time on its on its flight path, and he's set itself, set his body a goal of catching that ball, and you see it time and time again, what's it's what's called a reflex catch. And the body has the brain has moved hundreds of muscles to put the a hand in the flight path of that ball to catch it. That's amazing, and that entire thing has happened in that quick, you know, and the human engineering of it is incredible, you know. So some decisions are just out of our control. Yeah, you know. But those people that have to sit in a boardroom and decide whether or not they're gonna sack a hundred people or a thousand people or they're gonna sell their company or whatever, you know, that's some that's some serious decision making.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah.

Next Week’s Connection Trio & Closing

SPEAKER_04

Heavy stuff and yeah, it's um, comes back to well, and it well, that's right, it comes back to how all how all of the uh how all the life skills integrate with each other. Yeah, you know, it's gonna be it's gonna you're gonna have to be self-aware what this is decision making, you know, if you've got to do one of these big decisions, be self-aware. How's that affecting you? Yeah, how am I gonna cope with the stress? Yeah, you know, and it's a problem. So how am I gonna be able to solve this? And leading into, you know, these three creative thinking, critical thinking, and decision making. So it all works beautifully together, which is kind of I've I've just probably given an integration, which I was just talking about. So okay, so let's do a recap. Let's do a recap of uh of this episode. So how they all interact together. So critical thinking evaluates the information. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03

You're looking at me as if they go. I have no idea where I am.

SPEAKER_04

Are you answering this? Do you do you know where you are? Do you want to do it? My screen's gone black. My battery's gone. Creative thinking generates a pokay, so critical thinking helps assess criteria creative ideas, provides critica uh critica, provides criteria for decisions. Creative thinking generates possibilities, gives critical thinking something to evaluate. Yes, which is very important.

SPEAKER_01

Evaluate and analyze.

SPEAKER_04

Yep. And uh decision making, using critical thinking to evaluate, using creative thinking to generate new ideas and new options. Very important. So, yes, they all blend in beautifully, don't they?

SPEAKER_01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04

So something to think about. Something to think about. So, in closing, today we've covered the thinking trio, critical thinking, my friends, creative thinking and decision making. And yeah, hopefully this leads to better thinking, leads to better decisions, better decisions leads to a better life. And practice these skills as much as you can. So love it. What are we going to be talking about next week, Jody, in episode three of the Life Skills Masterclass?

SPEAKER_01

Oh, aren't we talking about mindfulness, lifestyle, medicine? No, no, no, that's episode four, my dear. Oh, okay. Oh, oh, oh, my favourite, the connection trio. So effective communication, interpersonal relationships, and empathy and how to connect with others meaningfully. Very passionate about that. That's gonna be, yeah, I'm really looking forward to that one.

SPEAKER_03

That's gonna that's gonna be a great episode.

SPEAKER_01

Sorry, I skip right to the end.

SPEAKER_03

That's what happens when you're not following your dates, like you said. You were gonna, but that's all right, it's okay, you know, make me yellow, make me orange. I'm not professional. Well, we're winging it here, ladies and gentlemen. We're being creatives.

SPEAKER_04

I decided to actually had quite a creative input.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I've been very creative, and I decided to not know what was happening in the end.

SPEAKER_04

Right, so that's good. Love it. Okay, so there you go, my friends. That's uh our second episode done of Life Schools Masterclass, all about thinking this week, creative thinking, critical thinking, and decision making. And next week we are going to be diving into effective communication. Not only communicating, but communicating effectively. Interpersonal relationships, which is the heartblock of life. Yeah, you know, interpersonal relationships.

SPEAKER_01

Communication is everything.

SPEAKER_04

Yeah, and and and the relationships that we have with people is absolutely everything, and empathy. So uh another three that blend both. Beautifully together. So Jody Gallen, thank you very much for your company this week once again. You're a gem.

SPEAKER_01

Thank you for having me. It's been good fun.

SPEAKER_04

Awesome. And yes, we'll see you next week, folks. As always, if you enjoyed this episode, share it with your friends, family. Like, subscribe, share, follow. And yeah, as always, please be kind to yourself and be kind to those around you. We'll talk to you next week. Cheers.

SPEAKER_01

See ya.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you for listening. The information contained in this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes. It is not intended, nor should it ever replace advice received from a physician or mental health professional. Want more info? Visit thelaughterclinic.com.au. If you enjoyed the episode, please share and subscribe. Thanks again for listening to the Laughter Clinic Podcast with your host, Mark McConville.