I was at an improv workshop yesterday given by a friend of mine. Her workshop was called Executive Presence and seemed to be aimed at women who needed to build confidence so that they could have more of that "presence." I went for the improv - and to see what she did. She'll come to one of my workshops and we might do some collaboration.
At one point in the workshop the leaders wanted us to share a failure and then clap our hands and say "Failure. Ta da!"
They said, "Once the failure has happened, let it go. Everyone else has. Identify what can be learned."
I wanted to plaster hubski stickers all over the place.
As we say in Canada, what can be learned, eh?
Remember kids: Sucking at something is the first step at getting kinda good at something. Failure teaches you many, many things. It teaches you how to handle adversity. It teaches you sportsmanship, character, and humility. It teaches you that not all of us are winners, and in the various games of life some people, through no faults of their own, are not going to 'win.' Failure also exposes your faults, and examining your failings will, if followed up, make you a better person. Removing failure from education being a disaster is one of the few things that my mom and I agree on. Kids have to be allowed to fail, to fall flat on their ass and just not make it. Learning how to dust yourself off and get back up to try again is something every kid needs to know how to do, and do well if they want to be functional adults.
Now tell us about your mom. Is she a teacher?Removing failure from education being a disaster is one of the few things that my mom and I agree on.
Improv does that because you get up and fail all the time and move on. You take interpersonal risks in an atmosphere that is generally warm and accepting.
My mom is an angry old Irish Catholic woman. She's gruff, harsh around the edges and will tell you exactly what she thinks of you. If you piss her off not even the angels in heaven will come to your defense. If you are her friend, she will storm the gates of hell with you, all while having a smile on her face. It took me too long in life to realize that she is an awesome person; she made me what I am today.
To me there is a bit of failure in almost everything I do. I don't mean that to sound gloomy. Nothing can be perfect, and that is ok. Even when we succeed there are things that could have worked better. The idea is not to necessarily think of them as outright failures but rather avenues to understanding yourself and your position (whatever that may be) better. I think it is important for kids most of all to feel failure, and I was glad my parents exposed me to it. Without knowing how to process failure and ultimately extract the good that comes from it you are put at a disadvantage.
Lil are you taking improv classes now?! My heart can't take it! Let me tell you about mistakes and what I've learned from improv. I was in a two person scene where we I was getting argumentative and really angry. This was great cause it caused me to stop thinking so hard. My partner said something like "Why are you getting so upset" and I replied with "My heart is elongated" What I meant to express was the stress on my heart. What I meant to do though it didn't matter. Because my partner picked up on it. We then started applying geometry to other body parts "oval arms" "rectangular jugular" "a leg, orthogonal to its knee" and other ridiculous things. The audience ate it up. We had a great time. My point is this, mistakes can be the greatest treasure if you let them. They can help you in life decide where to go and decide what to do. You have to give mistakes the room to give you the path you need. A mistake is simply a life guide who you didn't expect. What can be learned? Indeed.
My point is this, mistakes can be the greatest treasure if you let them. They can help you in life decide where to go and decide what to do. You have to give mistakes the room to give you the path you need.
This makes a lot of sense to me. I absolutely need to incorporate your line into my one-woman-might-even-include-improv show: "Every Marriage is a Good Marriage, even the bad ones. Attributions will be sent via psychic paging.
There is an ounce of expectation in everything That's what I'm talking about And I'm not accustomed to forget anything -that's a lyric I wrote years ago. After reading your post the tune was fixed in my head on repeat.