Applying Improvisation to Real Life
by jloftus1189
Just want to start off by saying I missed you guys last week! I was feeling pretty ill and had to miss out on my dose of improvisation for the week. Totally looking forward to getting back on track tonight!
When I initially signed up for this class, I thought I would be able to apply the things I learned directly to my everyday life, and that’s what has happened. The most important thing I’ve learned from this class is how to respond to a situation when it doesn’t go as planned. I have become much more adept at recognizing that the situation is not meeting my expectations, not dwelling on this, and thinking on my feet to adapt to the new unexpected situation.
I tended to try to predict how a conversation would go even before having it with someone, and sometimes I was right about how it would go. In this situation, I would have pre-practiced lines that I would use and the conversation would move along rather smoothly. Many times though, the conversation would take an unexpected turn, and I would be left speechless, partly because I was bewildered that it did not go according to my prediction, but also because I did not have any of my pre-conceived statements to fall back on. This bad habit of mine would often get in the way of me having a good time at parties or other social get togethers.
Obviously, this was quite the bad habit, and it kept me from fully enjoying the spontaneous aspect of life. It halted my creativity in conversation, and honestly probably made me look like a boring individual to talk to. The exercises we have been doing in class that force you to change your perspective on a seconds’ notice and develop a new train of thought have done wonders for me outside of the classroom. I now find myself talking to people I’ve never met before about pretty much anything under the sun.
Not that I wasn’t able to do this before, but now it’s a much easier task.
educ95si 
Looking forward to having you back in class Jason. I agree, life is simpler and more fun when you accept that stuff will often not gonna go as planned.
When I started out I definitely felt the same thing as you are right now but over time I got used to it. It wasn’t new any more and then spontaneity just becomes a concept, an idea rather than something that is vibrantly alive inside you. There’s such a big difference between knowing something and actually applying it to life, actually living it through. I’m glad you wrote this post. It reminds me and inspires me to deliberately bring more spontaneity back into my life.
I’m glad to hear that the class is having positive outcomes for you!
Another way at looking at this effect — being able to cope well when conversations or events take an unexpected turn — is as being comfortable with risk and ambiguity. Going into an interaction without knowing what is going to happen is a risk; the other person could hurt your feelings, insult you, or make you uncomfortable, or tell you things you don’t want to hear. It is also ambiguous because you have only estimates of the process and outcome of the interaction. Naturally, this makes us nervous because there is a fair amount of emotional and social impact at stake!
The most rewarding experiences in life, however, tend to be those that are relatively high-risk (because they often come with high rewards) and high-ambiguity (because they offer the potential for entirely unexpected, new outcomes, and for complex solutions and innovations). So it’s awesome that this is something you are nurturing in yourself!