Day 26 of #FabulousFebruary: IMPROVISE

According to last year’s publications, today’s word for #FabulousFebruary was “Celebrate”. But the state of affairs in the world prevents me to celebrate today. So what do we do when we need to steer unexpectedly? We improvise!

Everybody feels ′confident and focused when things are going as planned. But what happens when some incident occur, and we need to improvise?

Improvisation means performing without preparation

Sh*t happens. All the time. And we can’t exactly foresee what will happen. So we just have to be prepared to react.

The right attitude saves almost all circumstances.

• Be present: Being in the moment, hyper aware of the circumstances matters in no other moment more than now.
• Accept that this too is a FFT: Every time something doesn’t go as planned, we are in a FFT (F**ing First Time). The moment we realize we are in a FFT, we accept that it is normal to feel awkward, nervous or stressed out. Accepting means even explicitly stating that you’re making a new plan on the spot. People will show compassion and help you react.
• Trust your skills: Remember that your purpose is bigger than your fears. Trust the work you’ve put already, and pull methods that have helped you in the past.
• Be average: Remarkable work happens with practice and preparation and luck. Shooting for perfection while improvising has the risk of overdoing or underperforming. Doing just enough is good enough.
• Let go of Control: You’re not there to do everything right. In an improv situation, enjoy and learn. You may experience something new you’d never felt if everything ran as planned!

Practice expands our Toolbox

Performing when we are stressed out is hard. But we can practice:

• Practicing before a big presentation in a safer environment will help us get better and give us confidence.
• A ‘pre-mortem’ analysis (same of post-mortem but before) will lead us to answer the question: If something went wrong today, what would it be? How would we need to react then? Visualizing possible f*ckups before they happen help us be prepared for them.
• Talking to others about their experiences always enrich our knowledge and help us be more prepared.

We will always be Unprepared

If you always feel prepared, you’re not trying hard enough. We will always have moments of discomfort. And the more we have, the most resilient and flexible we become.

Prepared doesn’t have a lot to do with Perfect. We are in fact never prepared for the biggest things, the breakthroughs, the perfect moments. Just go with the flow, and enjoy the ride!

I hope you're having a #FabulousFebruary!