I had the pleasure of attending the PMI Western Michigan December Dinnertime Meeting - Defy & Deliver: Strengthening Personal Resilience Through Humor with speaker Matthew Sharpe.

It was such a refreshing reminder that resilience isn’t just built through discipline and structure. Sometimes, it’s built through laughter. A few of my favorite takeaways:

• We can’t always control our circumstances, but we can control how we respond.
• Every journey gets easier with a strong community, and if you don’t have one, build one.
• Humor has a place in our professional lives, and it can be tailored to your personal style.
• Laughter signals joy, and we all need more of it in our day-to-day.
• And yes… even project managers can learn to tell a joke, and we proved it last night! 😊

Such a great session to close out the year - thank you, Matthew Sharpe, for the insights and the energy. Looking forward to bringing even more resilience (and humor!) into 2026.