Your Million Dollar Idea

The last few weeks Luke (my husband) and I have been having the bathroom renovated. Specifically, a new floor and shower screen. Our old shower floor was one of those pre-fab plastic/acrylic ones probably put in in the 90s. It had gotten to the stage where it had so many cracks and sags no more epoxy filler would do. The semi-retired tiler who came to do the job actually took some of the old shower floor to show his tiler mates for a laugh, as hidden within the floor were pieces of wood someone had put in to strengthen it….lol….he said he’d never seen anything like it before.

We laughed. Because of course wood and water don’t mix and under that old floor was a pile of swollen wood. Still it lasted a while, since probably the 1990s so maybe they improvised something that kinda worked not so bad. Maybe….lol.

The tiler told us that they had come a long way with bathroom innovations and now you could get a shower floor that was pre-tiled and slotted in place in a new hob. He showed me the hob. A chrome right-angle. This would be the simple structure that kept the floor and shower screen in place. He revealed to me that he knew the guy that designed it. He said this particular design had now standardised shower sizes in Brisbane! All new housing developments were using them.

Such a simple idea. Why not standardise shower sizes with a hob that slotted a shower floor and screens in; like Ikea furniture?! He said the guy who came up with the idea, a fellow tiler was now a multi-millionaire and didn’t need to tile anymore. I said “Wow! See, all it takes is just one really good idea!”. “I know, and so simple, but I wouldn’t have enough faith in my ideas to follow through”, he laughed.

It got me thinking about improv and how it is the most creative and best way to keep your brain fit to come up with new and innovative ideas! Improv makes you think outside the box and helps you ride the waves of inspiration.

Now I don’t know if the guy who invented this particular shower innovation was improvising something at a job and came up with it, or just got frustrated that there was no standardisation in shower floors, but either way, it shows you the power of a good idea and trusting your inspirations.

I know for me personally improv has made me a quicker and frankly better thinker. I have learnt not to dismiss ideas too readily and to play with them. I have also learnt to go with instincts and be in the present. Contrariwise, I have learnt to challenge my preconceptions about things and come up with 3 or 5 solutions to a problem rather than just one. In a nutshell I have become more cognitively flexible.

I wonder if you have a million-dollar idea just waiting to be expressed!

You will never find out if you don’t trust your ideas and learn to think outside the box!

And here’s my plug (lol….. get it! Bathroom- plug!):
If you think you would like to have more innovative ideas, why not try improv?! Or get back into it again?!
You will never have more fun becoming a creative genius!

Learn improv privately with me 1:1 and let’s get those creative blocks moved and that sluggish brain renovated!!
Check out your options here:
https://improvhub.com.au/coaching
 
P.S. One of my favourite and simple improv exercises for getting you to think outside the box is ‘3 things that’.
You ask yourself ‘What are three things that ________ (use a verb here)?’
For example:
What are 3 things that crawl:

• A baby
• Traffic
• A spider

 
Practice this with all sorts of verbs eg. 3 things that climb, run, spin, slide, bang, crash, lean…… whatever!
The trick is to try and go as lateral as possible and you will see, over time, you will get better at thinking of non-traditional answers.

I did this exercise recently in my Level 1 class and someone asked me for 3 things that eat. My first answer was ‘rust’ and that is not what I would have thought of saying 1st doing the exercise even a year ago! I would have said 'a person' or 'me'!

So give it a go!
Ask your self 'what are 3 things that ______?' often.

You can do it while in the shower, doing the dishes, waiting in line, falling asleep, wherever, whenever and watch yourself starting to come up with better and more inventive answers!
 
Hope you are well! May the joy be with you!
 
Lindsay. X
Owner/Head Teacher at Improv Hub

copyright 2023 Improv Hub-Lindsay Drummond