Before I left for New York, I had dinner with a friend who had engaged in an “Impossibility Challenge.” She had to spend the month of September working toward an impossible goal. Going after something that is impossible to achieve lets the pressure off, yet as you go after it, you find yourself getting closer to that goal, after all.
As a part of her work toward this impossible goal, she did three things differently each day. Some of the things were big and bold, but most of them were the “little things,” and that got me thinking of an improv exercise I first encountered in Atlanta, back in my Hands On Atlanta’s Atlanta Cares Theatre days. We worked with kids in after school programs and brought improv into their world for the first time. One of the activities involved doing everyday things — like brushing your teeth, let’s say — and then challenging the kids to switch hands as they improvised this daily activity.
“Why would I do that?” one of the students asked.
“Maybe you wouldn’t. But your character might,” was the response.
I’ve never forgotten that, even though that was like 20 years ago. And whenever I find myself feeling stuck (with ANYTHING), I just change up something. Some little thing. Something that doesn’t seem to matter. Just change it. And get reminded that there are sometimes many ways to accomplish the same goals.
Once, a college counselor asked me to interlace my fingers, and when I did so, my left thumb was on top, then the right thumb, then the left index finger, then the right, and so on. She asked me to observe how that very natural thing felt to me, and then challenged me to change it up: interlace my fingers so that the right thumb was on top, and so on. Even as I stop typing this column to do it, to remember the sensation, I am fascinated by how STRANGE it feels to change this one small thing.
What can you change? Right now.
Pick something to change up, just for the sake of reminding yourself that there’s fresh perspective out there, and that a different approach can sometimes lead to unimagined breakthroughs. Try it in your acting. Try it in your business approach. Try it in your relationships. Try it in any tiny area of your life, and stay mindful of the power in seemingly insignificant shifts. Then try something bigger. And work toward the impossible. You never know!
Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!
Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001572.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.