Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up

by Patricia Ryan Madson

The people I admired were not looking over their shoulders to see if their peers were applauding.

since I’m not, it doesn’t matter what I do. Why not just play with the paints and see what happens?

Is the counter-example of seeing yourself as an expert part of why expertise can undermine innovation and creativity?

Understanding the power of yes is easy; practicing that acceptance and affirmation in daily life becomes our challenge.

make more mistakes, laugh more often, and have some adventures.

The only real failure is not doing anything. Why not explore,

Everybody, unless performing a scripted play, makes up his life as he goes along. We are all improvising.

paradigm that can be used for corporate training, team building, psychological interventions, education, and personal growth.

Like Cameron, I believe we are all artists. We just need to show up and begin the activity.

how to be in harmony with one another and how to have fun. We practice improvisation not only to “express ourselves” but to connect with others in a more immediate way.

we find ourselves nearly strangled by the planning instinct.

We plan when we should execute. We make lists, worry, or theorize (often endlessly) when we ought to be responding. We choose safety above all else. We seem to have lost the knack of looking at the day with fresh eyes or doing anything out of our comfort zone.

Reality continually presents itself as a fresh moment.

Charles Darwin recognized the value of this when he wrote, “In the long history of humankind (and animalkind, too) those who learned to collaborate and improvise most effectively have prevailed.”

Unless you are performing a memorized text or a rehearsed speech, whenever you speak you are improvising. Understanding how the improv system works can lead you to act more like a skilled jazz musician and less like a tuba player who has dropped her sheet music.

When you come across an exercise that appeals to you, put it into practice right away, if possible.

An excellent manual on swimming is useless until you jump into the pool. Getting wet is what it’s all about.

Seize the first idea and go with it.

how often we use the technique of blocking in personal relationships simply out of habit. Turning this around can bring positive and unexpected results.

“Always say yes if someone asks for help and you can give it,”

we commonly block ourselves.

Build upon someone else’s dream. And when you are meeting new people, it is helpful to volunteer information about yourself,

try this: Support someone else’s dreams.

With the rule of yes, we call upon our capacity to envision, to create new and positive images. This yes invites us to find out what is right about the situation, what is good about the offer, what is worthy in the proposal. Exercising the yes muscle builds optimism.

try this: For one day say yes to everything.

try this: Teach the Proverbs game to some friends and play it around the dinner table.

Change the habit of getting ready for life in favor of getting on with it now.

We often substitute planning, ruminating, or list-making for actually doing something about our dreams.

The habit of excessive planning impedes our ability to see what is actually in front of us. The mind that is ...

Allow planning or thinking-ahead thoughts to pass through if they occur. If your mind gets absorbed in these thoughts (“stockpiling,” I call it), redirect your attention to a detail in the immediate environment. Just as stray thoughts occur in a meditation, allow planning thoughts to pass by like clouds.

Substitute attention for preparation.

“Be prepared to let go” or “Be ready to go wherever things are going.” Cultivate a flexible mind that is ready to act.

try this: Spend a day without a plan.

try this: Substitute Zen-like attention for planning.

Attend to what others are saying or doing as if you would need to report it in detail to the CIA.

Substitute attention to what is happening for attention to what might happen.

He was attempting to set aside his attachment to self or personal consciousness. Once he had attained this opening or sense of spaciousness, the spirit of the role could enter his body and use him to fulfill its purpose. How different this is from the Western actor’s habit of psyching himself into the character, of filling up with intention and motivation.

“Don’t prepare,” really means to let go of our ego involvement in the process. When we give up the struggle to show off our talent, a natural wisdom can emerge;

All of our past experience, all that we have ever known, prepares...

The trick is to stop choosing and to welcome what is there. Allow you...

beyond acceptance is appreciation...

“putting on your coat of confidence —physically,” as if it were an actual coat.

“Confidence follows success”

Trying to overcome this fear is the wrong strategy. There isn’t any need to fix these feelings.

Performance anxiety comes from excessive self-focus.

don’t believe the voice that tells you that you “can’t” do anything. The notion that you are actually paralyzed by fear is a lie.

Notice and accept whatever you feel, and turn your attention to doing something useful.

Changing your focus can provide relief.

the remedy lies in turning your attention to the act of doing whatever it is—well. (Or, if doing it well seems a stretch at that moment, then do it adequately or even poorly, but do it.) Think about your purpose instead. Fear is not the problem; allowing your attention to be consumed by it is.

Move your body toward your dreams—to where they’re happening—the gym, the office, the yoga class, your kitchen, the improv class, the garage, a cruise ship, the word processor, the construction site, the senior center, the theater.

Love your parents? Pay them a visit. Need to write? Sit down at your desk. Want to have more friends? Show up at a volunteer job or a class in a subject that interests you. Need to exercise? Go to the gym or walk to the park. Believe in ecology? Take a plastic bag to the neighborhood park and pick up trash.