The unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life

The second act of a three-act play is always the most boring. Every prestige television show has episodes in the middle that are boring but set up huge payoffs for episodes later in the season. I have become afraid that my career is in one of those set up episodes. Think Game of Thrones, Season 3, episode 8: Second Sons.

As far as being in a set up episode of my life, that is both good and suboptimal all at once. I was promoted to Associate Professor last summer, which is cool. I also have had to cut back on several activities that were very meaningful parts of my job, which is less cool. The benefit of progressing in my profession is people ask me to do more things/take on more responsibility. Also, people are aware of my improv activities so they expect me to say, “Yes”, which again presents quite a predicament. The answer to this predicament is developing my understanding of stories and recognizing the stories in my life. This allows me to say Yes to people in a real and authentic way, while also not doing the grunt work of everyone who outranks me at work.

Ummm yeah, I am going to need you to go ahead and come in this weekend. Office Space, 1999

All of this is nurtured by the improv mindset that is interwoven into all the writing I have written (https://www.healthcareimprov.com/current-thoughts) but this will be a specific focus on how improv nurtures a specific mindset that can be practiced at work, thus making it easier to practice at future work, in life, and then back again practicing at improv. Nurturing these ideas will be how I plan to find joy in the boring set up episode of my life while preparing for the next adventure!

There is a book called The Improv Handbook by Tom Salinsky and Deborah Frances-White that is a great book on improv.

The work goes over a much broader approach to improv while still taking a very clear perspective. A theme of the book is viewing improv as a performance versus a process and how the art form is stuck in the past as there has been little development since the 1960’s and 70’s. It is stuck in its own story. I am not 100% on board with that idea, however I can see their point. Another excellent point it makes is regarding anytime a volunteer is asked for, children will volunteer because they want more opportunities while adults will sit back and wait because adults want the perfect opportunity. If anyone has facilitated an applied improv activity, you know that to be largely true.

“As adults, we have already decided what we are good at and what we are bad at, and we only want to have a go at things we are already good at”

That is exactly the issue I raised for myself at the beginning. There are things at my job that I am already good at. I don’t need to do anyone else’s tasks. I will just keep doing these things that I have “figured out”. I am great at them. In regard to improv, most people remember “Yes, and…” and that is good. The step before that is nurturing a sense of curiosity that will allow me to say Yes in the first place. I must nurture the sensation that I don’t have the perfect answer already. That desire to understand rather than be understood. People can feel a perfunctory Yes, and… coming a mile away. My family calls me out on it all the time. This occurs when I literally say the words “Yes, and…” but everything else about the way I am communicating (body language, tone, even the rest of the words I use) are telling a different story. When I am in the improv mindset, it allows me to at least momentarily, not remain attached to the story I have already told myself. In the workshops that we did this past year, we discussed how stories are often how we organize the events of the past into something understandable and relatable. Maintaining that sense of curiosity makes sure that I am not set on the wrong story or a story that will not serve me. Then I came across this video last week

To me, the practice of improv is really running through the steps of those three skills in a fun environment. I also have the opportunity to hear thousands of stories in my job in the hospital. I can see the stories that serve people, I can see the stories that don’t serve people, and every story in between. It does require me to have that sense of curiosity to learn about people’s story and wonder what information might I not have. It is not eliminating my perspective, but instead starting each interaction with a desire to express my perspective in a way that intertwines with my patient or colleagues perspective. Practicing this in the hospital with patients and colleagues leads to connection and meaning in my work. That same demand is placed on me when I step out onto the theater stage. I am forced to practice it in the theater if I want there to be laughter. I have to practice the three skills mentioned by Tony Robbins to have a successful show. I have to recognize the pattern that is happening so everyone, including the audience, can recognize it, I have to have fun with that pattern, and in that way, I am creating a new pattern with my scene partner. Then there is immediate feedback on if that new pattern was interesting or not.

So my plan is to apply these lessons to my career. What story am I telling myself about past events. What pattern in my life is it revealing? Can I use my understanding of interacting with other people’s patterns at work and creating new fun patterns on stage to help me move in the direction of my principles and goals in the coming year? The way forward is to practice those skills in each interaction I have, in order to build up to the bigger patterns in my life.

You should expect more writing from me in the new year. I would like to try to make some video content in the new year. These are ways that I know can help me recognize, use, and create new patterns for my career. This takes time certainly, which is why I am thankful for the second book I have read this year. Technically, I re-read. Technically, I re-listened to it. How to Live on 24 hours per day by Arnold Bennett

I think having a vision for how the year will play out but can make it difficult to implement each day because it is so far off and those goals end up being pretty easy to dismiss. At least I have a well-documented history of dismissing big picture goals until the very end and make it challenging to complete

This is what I look like after 16 hours of exercise. This was following my 7th Ironman in Malaysia in October 2024

The quotes that I need to remember from the book is this…

“ We never shall have any more time. We have, and we have always had, all the time there is.”

And

“The chief beauty about the constant supply of time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoilt, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your career.”

And

“You wake up in the morning, and lo! your purse is magically filled with twenty-four hours of the unmanufactured tissue of the universe of your life! It is yours. It is the most precious of possessions.”

It is just a reminder that I need to start doing these things now. I have time. The choices I make with my time on stage are what creates that magic that has been felt by every improviser. What I prioritize is what makes up the “unmanufactured tissue of the universe of (my) life”! It is up to me to prioritize the things that are important to me in my day and in each interaction. It can’t just be when I am doing things that I am already good at. I must have a go at new things and use them to understand the patterns of my life!