Too often, the emphasis is on being fast. But rarely do we talk about being smooth. I don’t know much about guns, but I have been told, “Smooth is fast. Fast is smooth.” No extra steps. Making each move count. Learning to see the game will help slow it down.
Readers of The Giving Tree can interpret the tree as a symbol of selfless love or a boy who can’t stop taking from it and is even downright abusive.
There is a lot of room for interpretation. But I think the part that gets overlooked is that even a stump has significance. And I believe in every stage of life, each of us has something to give.
I was at the grocery store, and this older lady was talking with my kids trying to give them a smile. And she said how much children bring her joy, it is the bright spot of her day, and that she wished her grandchildren visited her. I couldn’t help but think about that tree. How that tree would give anything to feel loved, to be needed, to live with significance.
Before opening night, the case will do a full dress rehearsal. Often, you will invite friends and family to come watch. Because pretending the audience is there and actually having the audience their feels different.
Performing in front of the mirror by yourself and in front of an audience will add to the tension. When you deliver in spite of that tension, that is where the meaning comes from.
Saying yes is a skill. Yes is part of improv theater. And life is a lot like improv. When we say Yes, we are opening up possibilities.
On the flip side, saying no closes the door. Which isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
We should say yes when we feel conviction to go forward, not because we know the outcome.
What we do has a far greater effect on how we feel.
Not the other way around.
Comedian, Paula Poundstone, talks about how only a few people would show up to a show that she traveled for. Frustrated she would take her anger out on the crowd. Until one day she realized, it wasn’t their fault, they were the ones who came. It is important for the artist to show up for those who care enough to be there not for the ones who couldn’t be bothered.
Being asked to do something last minute doesn’t matter if we are constantly engaged in the work.
Which means finding a practice, something that is done every day, opens up opportunities that you would hesitate to accept.
When in a group setting, we can contribute or take. It’s difficult to switch modes, however, when we have been trapped to look out for number one for so long. Teams shake us to remind us we are part of a community/tribe.
Most will say they are blocked from creativity because it will let them off the hook
But in reality, we are tired, we are procrastinating, we are looking for shortcuts…there are thousands of reasons.
What’s more productive is to say this is the best I can do today. And accept what people say. Here’s the thing, we will find when we start working we can now say, “well now that I’m here I might as well make it better.”
The narration gets in the way to subvert our best work.
No matter how much we design our lives to emulate factories, we can never be that efficient. Therefore, it is important to understand how we spend our time doing leisure activities. The problem I have isn’t using phones to scroll it’s what we could be using that time to do something else. While we all need breaks, we also can be intentional of how we use them.
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