Every day things do not go according to plan.
Every day things change. How do you feel about that?
Do you resist that reality?
We can react reflexively seeking to control the uncontrollable, presuming that if we only could control this or that, things will be alright.
Or we can be responsive in the face of change.
When we enter our day accepting that change will occur, we are cultivating a fertile ground for growing our ability to welcome and respond authentically in the moment to the change that is occurring (rather than blocking it or wishing it wasn’t there). We are priming ourselves for that moment where our expectations are altered.
The sooner we can accept, Yes, this is happening, the sooner we are on stable ground to ask, What the opportunity now, in this moment? And from this place we have a much wider range of options.
If we presume that everything will be just how we wanted it be, then we will be caught off guard and often block, resist, react.
The good news is that we can cultivate agility in the face of change. These are muscles that can be strengthened through intention and practice.
This is the core of improv and applied improv, cultivating a posture of responsiveness and agility in the face of change. Not seeking to control, but rather respond to and support our partner, support our colleagues, support our loved ones.
Improv games, workshops, retreats help us embody new skills like responsiveness in the face of change within a small safe container. And let's be honest, giving up control is far easy. And this is why is vital to have safe containers where we can experiment with not having control and discovering that things don't always totally fall apart.
What we discover experientially is that there is a latent collaborative intelligence that we can tap into if only we can loosen our grip on the steering wheel. Yes, we discover that there is actually deep joy in viscerally discovering what its like to truly collaborate, to create in the moment together.
And when we do this over time with those close to us, we build trust. And with that relational architecture of trust, connection, and play, there’s no telling what we can do together.
Likely, change the world.