Justify vs. Let it breathe

Well hello dearest reader! My entry yesterday was a long one but I think it undergirds everything we are trying to do here. Improv provides an easy way to go up that Spiral Staircase (need a better/catchier name and I am taking suggestions, please click your favorite social media below and share your thoughts). It is the same staircase that is required of any endeavor where you would consider yourself an artist of any type. I think a salesman could view their work in terms of the spiral as easily as a visual artist could view their activities climbing that staircase. Alright, enough rehashing, go read it and share your thoughts if you have not already!

Eye Level

 I have a show tonight (as mentioned in yesterday’s post [did I mention the blog post from yesterday yet?]). I’m very excited for this show because I missed it last month, but this is my favorite team. It was originally the team that was formed from people that I took classes with way back when I started my improv journey. Since then, people have left and we have added new people, including the person who taught me in my first Level 1 class, which is fun. There is something to be said about finding comfort within an unpredictable environment. That is what this team is for me. Improv is not always about being wild and forcing yourself to do new things. There is balance required for me. I think the times when I put myself out into new situations makes me better when I come back to my home base. Constantly pushing into new areas is a move I am familiar with and is a great way to avoid the hard parts of getting good at tasks. Constantly doing new things provides a great excuse as to why I am may fail. To put it in the language of yesterday’s post (yeah, I actually posted yesterday and I may have mentioned it but I think it is quite a helpful way to view the practice of improv/anything artistic), constantly doing new activities requires decreased vulnerability and stops on the Engagement step. That can certainly be fun, but that fun can be replaced very easily by the next new thing requiring limited vulnerability. This is essentially me in my 20’s. Having a group of people that I try to get better and better at improv with has helped tremendously. Our show’s form hasn’t changed significantly over the years. I think some of the most frustrating shows with this team have been when we had a fine show that made the crowd laugh, was technically what it was supposed to be, but could have been so much more if we made bolder choices at key moments. Our best shows have been where my teammates and I made grounded, bold choices at all the right moments. There have also been bad shows where there were too many bold choices, but those chaotic, nonsensical shows are less likely as we have done more shows as a team. This balance is representative of the challenge of covering new ground vs going deeper. Improv has helped me practice this challenge. Tonight, is all about exploring new ground by going deeper.

The Sky

I wish I would have had this understanding earlier in my career as a physician and also, I think this is one of those lessons that can only really be imprinted by experience. As I went from new activity to new activity at work, I did an acceptable job of developing Empathy and making sense of the connections that I developed. If activities did not create meaning in my life however, I have done an acceptable job of letting it fall away. There are many people who will just tell you to learn to say “No” to things because you will get overwhelmed. Even prior to being involved with improv, that advice always rubbed me the wrong way. Early in my career, I said Yes to everything. There were some tasks/projects I wished I would have said No to (a couple of demotions by way of promotion [when you get a title and more responsibility but no tangible reward] come to mind). Those experiences have really shaped how I want my career to develop. It's practically a cliché to say that I needed to go through those experiences to understand how to delve deeper into the projects I am currently engaged in that do provide meaning to my life as a healthcare worker.

The Ground

I practiced this balance when I substitute taught last Saturday. We went over the idea of balancing Justify vs. Let it Breathe. Some of the time, we need to let the scene play out before giving an answer of why things are the way they are. Let it breathe. Some of the time, an explanation needs to be provided and the group can heighten that idea or move on. Justify. I think that is the same balance in my work life. Some scenes of my life need to breathe a bit more to see what they are. Some scenes in my life need clarification so I know what to do with them. I get reps of this process everytime I perform.

 Conclusions?

I said to myself when I sat down to write that I should try to be more funny today since yesterday’s was very high level concepts (check it out if you haven’t yet!). No luck there. I think Paragraphs 2-4 above are the same idea at different levels, thus the headlines. Again, with the concepts! Hopefully, I am saving the funny ideas for tonight at the Backline! Check it out if you are in Omaha!