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…I wish someone would have told me that this life is ours to choose

No one’s handing you the keys or a book with all the rules

The little that I know I’ll tell to you…

Do you have it that lyrics from certain songs become your guiding theme, kind of like a soundtrack to moments in your life?

P!nk’s work has been with me for many years. I love to scream, jump, cry, and dance to it. And lately, it gets me in a positive mood before a huge challenge I’ve set for myself.

Before I cross the threshold of a certain room in the center of a certain city every Monday evening, for courage I play “All I know so far” among others and try to remember that none of us has the key to life, there’s no book with rules, that each of us is improvising in this life.

What if you can professionalize yourself in improvising? What if there are ways to feel relatively comfortable with mistakes, with failures, with weak ideas? If it’s possible, then I want to at least try, even though it’s completely uncomfortable.

And I try, I fall down, I fail, I don’t know what to say or how to react, I lack brilliant ideas, because surely those are the only ones I should have (right?). And I keep trying. And my instructor teaches me that it’s okay.

And even though my head knows, and there’s even research and great books on it (I’ll drop my two favorite titles in the comments), that we learn through mistakes and quite effectively at that, surely at a certain age it’s not appropriate, right?

Or maybe it is appropriate? Maybe you can make it fun and really have a good time with it?

You can, with a professional improv teacher (I definitely recommend Mylaga Improv Classes and Alfonso Garzas) with people from such different planets that it’s hard to compare yourself to each other (and that’s great).

You can, and it’s even worth it. Because we improvise in life, because no one has mastered the key to life and there’s no manual on how to live well. Because you can learn to improvise and it’s worth it.

I’ve been recommending improvisation workshops especially to Leaders for years, because in leadership I don’t think we should count on any kind of patent formula. Business is improvisation that’s worth being prepared for. I’ve been running a company for 20 years, I’ve been watching Leaders, companies and teams from the front row for 20 years – the ability to improvise is, in my opinion, a must-have in your toolkit if you want to actively participate in business.

And since I fundamentally don’t recommend something I haven’t tested on myself, I’ll continue to fall down in my improvisation classes, wander, stumble… and maybe the day will finally come when it will be relatively comfortable. Because it still hurts, especially bruised is that part of me that is firmly convinced in the world that I know how to talk.

…So you might give yourself away, yeah

And pay full price for each mistake…

And how do you learn about life, business, being a Leader? What helps you get comfortable with mistakes and failures?