We, as humans, tend to overthink things. A lot.
We get stuck in the thinking and don’t get to the part of doing.
We ponder about our lives – what would we like, what wouldn’t we like, what would happen, what could we have done and in all that pondering, time goes by.
Sometimes it’s because we go down the rabbit hole and forget what we were trying to accomplish in the first place. Other times, we let fear get to us.
Let’s put all of the shiny objects, reasons, fears, and explanations to the side for a little while and get to it.
Let’s find the transition into the doing.
Take the Chance
Try the new thing.
Sometimes the most amazing memories we have aren’t of how we tried something and were magically great at them, but awkward memories of how we made it through the experience.
I honestly have few very amazing memories where I tried something new and was stellar from the get go.
For better or for worse, I’m not that person.
I mostly have hilarious memories when I can feel my cheeks getting red when I retell the story.lo
Move On
Back in the summer of 2018, I decided to take an improv class at the local improv theater in Orlando called the SAK Comedy Lab.
Among the many improv games they teach, there is this mentality of “move on”.
As in if you make a mistake, things don’t go well, or you left someone hanging, when the scene ends, you let it go and move on. You don’t harbor the mistake. You don’t sulk. You just shake it off, keep going and jump into the next game.
The instructor emphasizes moving on by saying “moooooove on!” like a cow’s moo with a low flappy jazz hands gesture.
I must have misheard her or the explanation of “move on” because at a certain point in the class that day I thought she wanted us to moo as much as possible.
And every time she said “moooooove on!” to end a game, it reiterated to me to start mooing.
So throughout the majority of the class, I would play her game and moo -at the end of the game, in the middle of a game, to rhyme with, wherever I could fit it in, I “mooed” like a hundred times.
With jazz hands.
The other students started noticing my random mooing and starting making cow jokes and mooing along.
I had no idea what was happening, but it was gloriously fun at the time.
At the end of the class, the instructor told me she appreciated my focus on the mooing and not on people’s mistakes.
To which I responded, “Oh?”
She started laughing. Hard.
“Mooooove On!”
Sometimes the most amazing memories we have are when we tried something new, lived to tell the tale, and had to “moooooove on”.
All of this to emphasize:
“You only live once, but if you do it right, once is enough.” ~Mae West
So stop overthinking, take the chance, do something new, laugh really hard, and keep “moooooving” forward.
Your future self will appreciate the new experiences, the great memories, and the hilarious stories you will uncover.
As for me and improv, I can honestly say I love it. I’m hooked. And at some point when timing aligns, I’ll be taking another improv class and eventually join a professional improv group.
