There Are No Mistakes
In January of this year, I fulfilled a lifelong dream of taking an improv class.
And I’ve continued since that time. Every Tuesday night, as the kids are heading to bed, I jump online to spend three hours with a group of fellow improvisors from all over the country. Just like my recent career change, the experience is exhilarating and scary at the same time, but practice makes progress.
The benefits of improv are too numerous to count. It requires mindfulness and absolute presence. It hones listening skills and fosters collaboration and teamwork. It’s a way to flex creative muscles and find time for play, two important aspects of life that often get sidelined when we are too busy “adulting”.
But for me the most important lesson has been to embrace the core tenet, “There are no mistakes, only gifts and opportunities.” This has meant letting go of a lifetime of perfectionism, which was only reinforced by my work in healthcare, where mistakes can mean the difference between life and death.
Unfortunately perfectionism can often keep us stuck. Self-doubt and negative self-talk hold us back from trying new things, taking risks, and seeing opportunities. And while it’s important to me to hold onto the aspects of perfectionism that make me a good doctor, it has been liberating to tame the self-talk that is no longer serving me. Improv is just one of many tools, including coaching, that I have implemented as part of this ongoing process.
