Yes and...

In my first Intro to Improv class, we ended the session with a little game called "Yes and." This game's rules are simple. Two people are given roles and a setting by the rest of the class. They have to create a scene with one another spontaneously. The twist, each person has to respond to their partner with "Yes, and..." and then add on to whatever their partner just said, no matter where it takes them. You don't know where you are going. That's the point. It doesn't matter. The idea is that you are supposed to build a scene TOGETHER with your partner, accepting what the other person says and then responding with a "yes" and adding to it. For noobs (like me), this is tougher than it sounds. There's a desire to take control of the scene and to make it YOUR vision, but that game quickly becomes "Yes, but..." which nobody likes, not even your Grandma.

After class, I was thinking a lot about this idea of "Yes and..." and how it could be related to real life. There's so much potential in that phrase. Anything can happen. When you say "no" there's nothing more to be said; the idea is dead. When you say "yes, but..." you're not doing much better. You're pretending you're open to a new idea/situation/experience by saying "yes" right before the "but" lets the excuses roll in. (Side note: Yes, I know that Jim Carrey already made a movie about this)

By nature, I've spent most of my life a "yes but" person, but within the last two years I've realized how much that way of living is 1) lame and 2) stupid. Planning for Guatemala, I thought about all the possible locations I could go to, countries, volunteer sites, etc, but ultimately that didn't matter too much. Despite my efforts to plan ahead, I had little choice but to throw myself in head first and trust in myself that I'd be able to resurface. The experience was all the more special because of that. Before taking my comedy class, I had little-to-no reason to believe that I'd be an entertaining speaker. In fact, there had been numerous occasions in which I was an exceptionally boring speaker with zero charisma and negative audibility. But, I went against "reason" and said that I was going to be funny (If you haven't seen it yet, check out a video of me NOT sucking here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SAtJmoUosM).

I don't want to be preachy (and if I ever am, I really do apologize. Tell me that I'm being preachy and I will swiftly kick myself in the face repeatedly until the preachiness is gone), but I don't believe there's anything you or I CAN'T do. There are plenty of things I WON'T do, but I'm thoroughly convinced now that CAN'T is a state of mind. The next time an opportunity to do something out-of-character for you comes your way, I dare you to take it. I've never regretted saying yes to something. Sure, I've looked foolish plenty of times. Sure, I've felt incredibly awkward. But I've never, never, never walked away having learned nothing. Come to think of it, the only times I've learned nothing are the times when I've done the same shit I do every day. So challenge yourself, say yes and...

... you can fill in the rest.