Monday, September 06, 2010

Improv ideas for Life - Part 2

In my continuing series, here's hoping these improv mantras can positively influence your experience and help make life better. Today's topic is:

Accept all ideas

One of the biggest paradigm shifts to deal with while learning improvisation is the powerful concept of "yes and....". The idea is that anything said or done is a valid offer or idea and you must build on that offer or idea and evolve it to its logical conclusion. You can never really know in advance whether an idea is going to fail or succeed (see first post). The problem is that as adults, we've been conditioned into believing that it is natural and acceptable to deny, block and ridicule new ideas, especially if they don't fit within our own reality or don't massage our egos. The natural and proper thing to do is accept the offer, try to build upon it and pass that slightly evolved idea back to the person who made the offer, or off to the next person. Then the building continues. Even if an idea doesn't succeed, there are likely elements that were part of its overall development that stand out as good material to try including in another idea. Not only does this give all new ideas a chance, it also fosters an environment of cooperation and creativity. You become much more motivated and encouraged to offer ideas in the first place if they are all accepted as equals and developed through to their eventual conclusion.

You'll only know that an idea doesn't work once you try it. Every idea should be acknowledged and developed.

"If you have an apple and I have an apple and we exchange these apples then you and I will still each have one apple. But if you have an idea and I have an idea and we exchange these ideas, then each of us will have two ideas." ~George Bernard Shaw

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