Greetings friends and wisdom-lovers, and welcome to Sunday Select, with some quotes, links, ideas and invitations from the Wisdom Workshop network. Happy Sunday! 🍂 Writing the Good Life 16 starts this Wednesday, October 23.🍂
Five Quotes from Improv Wisdom
Patricia Ryan Madson, Stanford Drama Professor Emeritus, founded the Stanford Improvisors in 1991. Turns out that the lessons of teaching improvisational games translate pretty well to a life well-lived. Here are five gems from her book.
On her life path:
I had tried to be worthy of receiving tenure. I didn’t understand that this worthiness could come only from honoring my own voice. Making decisions solely to please others is a formula destined to fail. The people I admired were not looking over their shoulders to see if their peers were applauding. They were heeding their inner promptings. “I do this because I know it needs to be done.” My search for validation had diverted me from discerning what was uniquely mine.
On what good improvisation is:
Improvisation has nothing to do with wit, glibness, or comic ability. A good improviser is someone who is awake, not entirely self-focused, and moved by a desire to do something useful and give something back and who acts upon this impulse.
On what improvisation teaches:
The practice of improvisation . . . teaches something that we are hungry to understand: How to be in harmony with one another and how to have fun. We practice improvisation not only to “express ourselves” but connect with others in a more immediate way.
On the “improv world,” which translates directly to the growth cultures of our team:
They are the “‘Yes’ sayers” … it is easy to be around these folks. They are can-do people, they have learned a way of working together on stage that commonly spills over into their daily lives. There is a spirit of cooperation. If I forget something, my colleagues cover for me. Everyone seems to say “Thank you” often, and “I’m sorry” slips naturally off the tongue. We smile and laugh a lot. We rarely need committee meetings to decide things. We do stuff . . . We notice how much others are doing for us. We have fun.
Madson’s call-to-action:
I’m writing to encourage you to improvise your life, please. I want you to take chances and do more of the things that are important to you. I’m hoping that you will make more mistakes, laugh more often, and have some adventures. I’d be very pleased if you began observing the details of our human interdependence; in particular, seeing those who are contributing to your welfare, right now, and who probably go unnoticed.
Essay from Me: When to Say Yes
Say yes to other people, to yourself, to the process of what’s unfolding for you.
I’ve talked to 23 of our 102 alumni over the past two months, asking them about why they said yes to the invitation to join a wisdom workshop. One comment stands out.
Dana has a hard time describing what the wisdom workshop is: “It’s like a philosophy course that isn’t really a philosophy course, led by this teacher who isn’t really the teacher…”
We laughed and then she said: “it’s funny because it’s almost better to not tell a new person what the wisdom workshop is — because the people you want are the kind of people who say yes without knowing exactly what the thing is.” Yes!, I thought. They bring a willingness to jam, to improv, and they don’t have an ax to grind, not with themselves or with other people. She went on: “it’s like you just want to give people a funny hat and tell them to show up at a secret location with the funny hat and see what happens.”
Of course we need to say no in order to say yes: we’re saying no to pessimism, to passivity. We’re saying no to being a spectator. We’re saying no to posturing, so we can say yes to who we are.
When to say no: when you’re not being honored. When your safety is at risk. When you’re getting the sense that people are going to exploit you. When there’s a red flag. When you’re being pressured to make a decision quickly.
When to say yes: when you open your eyes. When you lie awake, asking if you should write in your pages. When you consider calling the friend you haven’t spoken with in a while. When you wonder if you should do what needs to be done. When you are given a chance to repay the kindness of the people who cared for you. When you can join a series of gatherings with cool people who care about doing good in the world in small, subtle ways. ☺️
There’s this strange paradox of growth you may have encountered: when you accept where you are, change happens. Change becomes possible when you say yes to the reality of here and now.
Sometimes accepting who and how you are is a massive change, particularly in a culture of toxic positivity that denigrates grief, or in a hustle culture that denigrates rest, or in a consumerist culture of bigger, better, faster, more.
✍️ Write on
What’s the most important decision you could make today?
What do you need to make that decision?
🗓️ Sync Up
Writing the Good Life 16 starts this Wednesday, October 23. If you want to restart your writing practice, live more intentionally, create space for stillness, and invest in your growth or know someone that does, I hope you’ll consider saying yes! Syllabus here. A collection of testimonials here. Jump on a call with me here.
☮️ Peace Out
Thank you for reading! Invitations to gather and an extended writing invitation featuring David Reynolds’ Constructive Living paradigm below the paywall.
Here’s to saying yes where it matters,
Hoping this edition encourages you to do so,
Sean
Would love any and all feedback. I enjoy getting your emails :)
You’re invited:
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Wisdom Workshop to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.