Toby Martini

Better Business & Better Speaking through Improv!

Play!

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Are you getting enough Play in your life?

Play is the juice of life. Without play, life would be a dreary drudge.

Comedy, fiction, games, movies, friends, music, love all add the zest, zing, and joy into our days.

And yet, somehow we get all caught up in making money, and buying things, and keeping our jobs. Work becomes a chore and it really doesn’t have to be.

We spend so much time in working and learning new ways to be efficient and productive, that we neglect to add joy and fun into our day.

Now, with that ugly picture painted… what are You going to do about it?

Write down your five favorite fun, exciting, energizing things that you love to do.

Now go and make sure you work those things in this week, all five. (And if you really like it and want to, do some of them twice!)

What would your life look like if you got to do your Top 5 fun things every week?
Really, every week!

Bobby

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Bobby McferrinBobby McFerrin. I just love this guy. 

It’s one of those things where I won’t think of him for like a year and then somebody mentions the name, or I hear a snippet of a song, or I see a video like the one below… and then I remember how really amazing he is. 

He’s living his dream, teaching people music around the world AND creating his own type of music, too. He doesn’t just sing acapella. He creates soundscapes.

I ran across this great quote by Bobby and while he is talking about music, it is equally true for Improv (and Life!) 

When asked if he feared making mistakes in his performances, Bobby said, 

If you’re quick, you use [mistakes]. You incorporate them – you turn the mistake into something else… you let the mistake guide you to a whole other place. And sometimes mistakes are the best thing that can happen, because they might lift you out of your lethargy, out of your complacency, and open your mind up to a whole other area that you wouldn’t have gone to intentionally. 

This is such a great way to say this! 

I am always putting this in to conversation with my workshop participants and coaching clients. Make Mistakes. Make lots of them! The edge of chaos is where all of the great ideas hide out.  It’s where creation happens. 

Sure it can be scary and that monster, The Fear of Looking Bad, always lurks there, too. But, get over it! Take risks. Fail forward. The joy and delight of creation far outweighs fear of simple embarassment! 

The part about going to areas you wouldn’t have gone to intentionally is a big one (especially for writers of any sort). Doing Improv, you will say things that you would simply NEVER have thought to put together.

You learn how to unbridle your unconscious thoughts and give them a free pass to your mouth. None of that limiting Rational Brain here today!

Trust me, that’s useful!

 Now check out this cool video of Bobby demonstrating spontaneous music.

World Science Festival 2009: Bobby McFerrin Demonstrates the Power of the Pentatonic Scale from World Science Festival on Vimeo. 

This video is cool because he easily demonstrates they we could all just do that, too. I love it when someone not only demonstrates excellence, but can so easily evoke it in others. People that might not have thought of themselves as gifted musically can play along with him here. And hopefully someone in that audience is inspired to go out and make some music of their own! 

Filed Under: Fun