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Improv Games to Rewire Focus and Confidence with David Westerlund – Part 2 · Time Billionaires: Mindset and Time Management for Work & Life

• 0:00
  Speaker A: Whatever we're doing, consciously or unconsciously, that is creating our future. So let's bring some intention. We need trust. We need skills of relating. It's not going to be a PowerPoint. It really is learning by doing. Most people who've tried improv have been not so sure about it, but they've had enough courage just to show up, step out, and be willing to step into the unknown.
• 0:24
  Speaker B: Hey there, billionaire. Yep, I'm talking to you. If you expect to live another 31 years, you're already a billionaire. Not in money, but in the real measure of wealth, time. That's because 31 years is roughly a billion seconds. But most of us waste time in ways we'd never waste money. The currency of time billionaires is micro moments. The 90 second to 15 minute gaps hidden between the structured parts of your day. This podcast is about reclaiming them with quick research backed ideas to help you feel more creative, productive and alive. Welcome to Time Billionaires. Let's make your next micro moment count.
• 1:01
  Speaker C: This is a two part episode.
• 1:03
  Speaker B: If you want to check out the first part, listen to the previous episode of Time Billionaires.
• 1:07
  Speaker C: Yeah, you've talked about the future you're practicing for. What future are you practicing for? Yes, I want to say more about that.
• 1:13
  Speaker A: Yes. So what future are you practicing for? Comes from Adrienne Maree Brown and they. I don't know if they still live in Detroit. They did at some point. I have that in my head. She is brilliant. She's a community organizer, facilitator. At some point she was a doula. And with that statement, what future are you practicing for? The idea is whatever we are doing now in micro things has a macro impact for now, but also for the future. I think the idea that Adrienne Maree Brown puts out with that is whatever we're doing consciously or unconsciously, that is creating our future. So let's bring some intention for sure.
• 2:00
  Speaker C: That's the premise of this show, that we're especially. We're wired mentally to be especially creative and focused and remember in transitions. But we give away our transitions now to digital deluge. That doesn't serve us, but we can be much more intentional with the practice even then. It's a question I get a lot when I'm speaking is, well, okay, I listened to this audiobook and now I don't remember it. What was the point? Well, the point was you were practicing being someone who doesn't just passively scroll in that time. You're building on it.
• 2:31
  Speaker A: And I also say to that I Remember someone saying, do you remember what this person talked about at a talk a year ago? No. But did it nourish me at the time? Yes, because I don't remember what I ate for lunch eight weeks ago, but it nourished me at the time.
• 2:43
  Speaker C: And if you hadn't, you wouldn't have been able to build on it. Yeah, yeah. So one of your prior roles is a jail chaplain, which I find fascinating, and you have so many good stories from that. But the one word story is one that I want you to talk about, because that's an improv game. People can play with each other.
• 3:00
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. The jail chaplain was just a piece of. I was a director of development of this nonprofit, but it was very powerful to get in touch with that community. And so there's some incarcerated men, and listeners will be able to count the number of people. I don't remember the number of people, but the guards were late in coming to get this podcast. And so we were sitting in a chair, circle of chairs, and I said, let's play a word at a time story, introduce them to the concept. And they didn't even create a story. But what they created was so profound, I'm like, I'm not going to correct them and say, well, that's not a story. So I'm pointing, if you can imagine the circle of chairs and what they said. Each person saying one of these words was, I want to change my life for the better. And that was. Everyone had spoke. And what that says to me is there was something in the room, that desire to change. This is the first time they've ever played even this. Right. And so that takes me to, like, there's something already present. And if we can tune into and practice these muscles, there's going to be so much more innovation and connection and energy.
• 4:16
  Speaker C: Yeah. You've talked about practicing for the future life that you want. What do you want in life and how you solve those problems. Say more about the problem solving and the practicing that comes from it.
• 4:28
  Speaker A: Yeah, I think. I mean, what's coming up for me is just when I'm problem solving and I'm just in my head, sort of standing back from the whiteboard, not moving into it or standing back from a potential connection and holding back. It doesn't work. It doesn't work for me. But in the stepping out, it's like I said before, things become apparent that weren't there before. I like to say, we don't know what the future holds. We never have known. But even more now in the VUCA world. I don't know if you've talked about vuca. Volatility and certain uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. There's so much we don't know, but what are the things we need, no matter what?
• 5:13
  Speaker C: And we should specify VUCA as an acronym to describe the state of affairs. It's not like we're dubbing this the VUCA era.
• 5:19
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So what do we mean, no matter what? There's a process I lead called Critical Uncertainties, where we look at four quadrants. What is likely to happen in an uncertain climate within your work and sector. And then we look at what's a strategy that will be helpful no matter what one of those four likely strategies are. And so what I always come back to is we need trust, we need skills of relating. And how are we going to get better at that? It's not going to be a PowerPoint, maybe it'll be an audiobook. We'll be inspired. But it really is learning by doing. And then if you add in play and if you add an improvised play, it. It just keeps ratcheting up the potency.
• 6:04
  Speaker C: Right, Right. Yeah. There's certain truths about human nature that haven't changed for tens and hundreds of thousands of years and are not going to change the next 20 years. Let's lean into those as sound principles. But I also think is interesting is that research shows from FMRI scans that our brains don't actually tell the difference between real and perceived events. So replaying something over and over that may or may not happen feels in our body like it keeps happening. And replaying something positive. Right. Remembering a parent or grandparent who's no longer with us, they're in this present then too. And so there's really the power of choosing our thoughts, which is the only thing that we can choose, and letting that then change the emotions, the response, the energy that follows, which.
• 6:49
  Speaker B: Go ahead.
• 6:50
  Speaker A: Yeah. No, this takes me to thinking about, like, time. Okay. With trauma, people feel like. Or any intense stress. Let's say it's like happening now. For them it is like when they get triggered.
• 7:06
  Speaker C: And trauma memories tend to be replayed identically, unlike other memories, which tend to change as we recall them.
• 7:11
  Speaker A: Yeah.
• 7:12
  Speaker C: Trauma tends to be replayed almost identically. Yeah.
• 7:15
  Speaker A: Yeah. So my coach last year, she said trauma is something that happens too much, too fast without enough support. So I like thinking what's the opposite, Slowing down less, with a lot of support. And that's where she said, my coach, Bethany Davis, shout out to her, like, the healing happens more rapidly or Innovation happens more rapidly because we're slowing down. If I want to connect with you and really listen, if we're both talking super fast and we're distracted, we're not going to connect. And I like thinking like anything that exists is because of some connection. All of our human lives are because two people came together and connected.
• 7:57
  Speaker C: True.
• 7:58
  Speaker A: Any ideas there? Things connect. So it's this irony, even people think improvisers, they're thinking fast on their feet. It's actually sometimes slowing down and not editing and just allowing, going. Okay. And then I'm going to make a simple offer.
• 8:15
  Speaker C: That's right. Saying less often can build more. You do a really interesting job. You host play breaks. Will you explain what those are?
• 8:23
  Speaker A: Yeah. So my friend Sarah McMahon and I saw an NPR story, 2022 maybe, of the power of improv, which were like nothing new for us, but it was a great article on how 20 minutes a day can boost your conference confidence, lower your anxiety. All these great things that we knew about. But we're like, oh, what a great resource. So we decided the second week of January, that next January to have a 20 minute play break Monday through Friday. And it was so much fun. Just show up on Zoom. You know, we don't need to do a full hour meeting. We can do little 20 minute play breaks. And so now I do a Thursday minute, 20 minute play break at 9am there's someone from Mexico, a couple people from Montreal, someone from the UK and across the US and we just check in. How are you feeling as you arrive? And I always normalize. Multiplicity of things is fine. And then we play some games, super simple, and then we check out. And it's always dangerous to say always, but I would say always. People's energy shift. They show up stressed, distracted, and they leave feeling connected and inspired and energized.
• 9:31
  Speaker C: Totally. So for people listening, are there certain games in the playbreaks that work really well or that they can do just by themselves? More solo games.
• 9:39
  Speaker A: Yeah. So play breaks virtual. And I would say, you know, by yourselves or with a friend or partner. The bumper sticker game, which is a word at a time game.
• 9:51
  Speaker C: Games you can play either with one friend or by yourself. So seven things I love about this
• 9:55
  Speaker A: moment's a good one, don't get me started, which is a ranting game. So like, give me something wallpaper. Don't get me started about wallpaper. It's just like it peels, it fades. It's just like, you know, so I'm ranting and then you're gonna. If I'm playing with another person, listen for a particular word. Like if I said fade and you will jump in and interrupt. Don't get me started about fading, Right?
• 10:22
  Speaker C: Yeah, it's a good one. You could just do anything. Or positive too.
• 10:26
  Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I start people with ranting just to get out that ranting energy. And then I paus and you pause yourself and you alternate ranting and raving. Don't get me started about wallpaper. I love wallpaper. Just think about all the potential.
• 10:40
  Speaker C: Yeah, I love it. It's true. And it doesn't have to be for anyone. It's not performance. It's just this act of not filtering, not censoring, creating, thinking, listening are all skills that help us well.
• 10:52
  Speaker A: And this is the impact of, like, my morning practice or even the play break. I find my Thursdays are often a different feeling than another day. Most people who've tried improv have been not so sure about it, but they've had enough courage just to show up for something and then see what happens.
• 11:12
  Speaker C: Right. Following anything you're curious about is a good idea. Because if there is some curiosity, it doesn't have to be a hell yes when you get started. I think that's. I don't know. One of the pop psychology things that I push back on is like, a lot of things aren't hell yeses, but they're worth following to see where they go. If it's a hell no or it's not adding to your life, that's important. But I think the idea that you were introduced to me too, that improv does not have to be about performance, it's about experiencing it. It's true of anything. My yoga teacher also says that too. The difference between performing yoga and experiencing yoga is in your breath. I think that's true of biking. The difference between performing biking, how fast are you going? Are you setting a PR versus experiencing? It often does come down to just that presence. So really we can do anything performing or experiencing, and it probably comes down to the breath and the intention.
• 12:03
  Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, that's so good with the breath. And what's coming up for me too is this. It's a little bit like this. Being curious and stepping forward. But I want to call it stepping out. So like the game I am a tree, right? You come in a circle, you make this little tableau. But the point I want to make, I'll pause a group in a class. Let's say if some people aren't stepping out, some people are. And I'LL just note that. And one time I did this, and there was a woman to my left who I'm friends with her daughter. This woman's 80 and single. And you'll see why I'm mentioning the single part. And she, after my pause, started stepping out and I said, I encourage you, even if you don't know yet what you're going to offer. Step out and be willing to step into the unknown. Well, she started doing it, to her credit, later that week when I walked with her daughter in the morning, we had walk in the woods. She's like, guess what happened to my mom? The next day she was on the trail with her dog and she met this guy and she started talking with him and they're going on a date. But she said, I probably wouldn't have done that if I wouldn't have been practicing the stepping out in improv class
• 13:12
  Speaker C: in a low stakes environment where it doesn't feel like it matters, but most of what we do is a low stakes environment. Right. If she hadn't done that with this guy, she would never see him again.
• 13:20
  Speaker A: Right?
• 13:20
  Speaker C: It's okay.
• 13:21
  Speaker A: Yeah. And I want to say with the low stakes, what I love about an improv class or what we can build within our communities, our partnerships, is that safety. There's an improv tenant of support, your partner, whatever you put out, it's going to be great. Right? And like I like to say, when I started learning improv with my daughter, I'm embodying a posture of yes. Even if she's 9 or 10 years old and she's offering an idea, like, I know it's not going to work. How about I don't block her right away? Oh, I'm so curious. Like, tell me more about this idea.
• 13:55
  Speaker C: Yeah. Or even just seeing why she's curious about it. I saw Tig Notaro here at the Mount Baker Theater, amazing comedian. And she talked about the story of how one of her sons came up to her partner, her wife, and said, mom, I noticed that on tv, all the families are the same. There's one mom, one dad, one brother, one sister, one dog, one cat and one goldfish. And her wife goes, huh? Why do you think that is? Because as a parent, I might have jumped in with any number of things. And her son goes, probably diversity and inclusion. And I love that because, like, not enforcing or projecting on a kid, just seeing what's coming from it.
• 14:39
  Speaker A: And that's a gift to the child too, because I imagine their child being like. And like, wondering. So they get to cultivate wonder.
• 14:48
  Speaker C: Exactly.
• 14:54
  Speaker B: Thanks for spending this micro moment with me. If you found it valuable, share it with a fellow time billionaire and give us a rating to help others discover the power of micro moments. For more ways to reclaim your time, check out timebillionaires.org and follow me. Rebecca Shadducks on LinkedIn. See you next time.