Drop your cards!

I was watching a podcast on YouTube the other day (as I do when I am not recording Banterpreneurs- the improvised business podcast, with Laura) [oh that was a stealth plug- but come on you knew there would have to be one plug at some stage, best get it over and done with quickly right? Ok done….] and the host of the podcast I was watching said this awesome thing!

He is in finance, but he is also a Magician (Andrei Jikh from the ‘Don’t Sweat It’ podcast- although I’m not sure about the whole doing it in a sauna thing…..lol…a bit gimmicky).

He was talking about how when he first started to do magic tricks with cards, he would be so worried about dropping a card in front of people and failing that he became scared and anxious.
He says he was able to move past his fears and anxiety when he decided to deliberately drop a card!

To deliberately FAIL!

“I came up with this technique, I would drop a card on purpose, and when I did, I didn’t care if I was imperfect, and that made me so much better a performer because I wasn’t scared of failing anymore” -Andrei Jikh

Wise words and one thing I LOVE about improv. We learn to risk, to fail, to fail joyfully and to realise in the end there is no failure.

One of my most favourite improv games from the wonderful Jill Bernard is called ‘Loser Ball’:
You throw an imaginary ball to each other, but the catch is……. you must fail!
You must not catch the ball! It can fly past you, hit you in the head, fall through your hands, whatever, but you must fail! Lol. (it’s super funny to watch).
And as you are failing you need to smile and laugh and be joyful about it, have fun with it. And of course, your fellow improv players will yell words of encouragement to you like, ‘wow great dive!’ or ‘ohhh, so close!’ or ‘Awesome work!’ or ‘Almost had it!’ all while you fail big joyfully.

This incredibly simple and silly exercise is rather profound.
What if we had a safe space where we were encouraged to fail?
What if we could see failure as part of the process and not the end of something?
What if we could practice failing joyfully so our brain associated failure with joy instead of dread?
 
Famous painter Bob Ross said ‘there are no mistakes just happy little accidents’ and that is also what we believe in improv. Sometimes what you feel is a mistake or failure in improv becomes the offer that makes the scene!

I truly believe by not fearing failure and being happy to take risks makes you a better improv performer but also a better player in the game of life!

Fear of failure can hold us back from a lot of things including expressing ourselves and our creativity. And even holding back our feelings for others for fear of rejection.

Improv helps us to redefine failure and in doing so changes our relationship to fear.
 
As Robert H. Schuller expressed, ‘What would you attempt if you knew you couldn’t fail?’
 
[I’m afraid of doing another plug but what the heck if it fails, it fails…..lol……This is probably a big mistake to push for two plugs in one email but………what the hay! Here goes……]

If you would like to change your relationship to failure, then sign up for some improv coaching with me!
Book in now here: https://www.improvhub.com.au/coaching

I hope you are well and will take the challenge of changing your association and relationship to failure, whether through improv or by any other means.
 
P.S I highly recommend you check out Bob Ross- a great man.
https://www.youtube.com/@bobross_thejoyofpainting
 
May the joy be with you!
 
Lindsay. x

copyright 2023 Improv Hub-Lindsay Drummond