ladies and gentlemen this is Jenny and
Jenny is a classical musician she has
been a customization for 20 years and
across these 20 years she has learned
she’s been trained to fear mistakes this
is Miami she’s a psychologist and she’s
been researching where this fear comes
from and how to overcome it and how it
develops she’s also very self-critical
herself I know her well and she never
wants to make mistakes when she’s at her
job so this is us I’m curious if this
sounds familiar to you guys so can you
please raise your hand if you find
sometimes that you are afraid of making
mistakes or that you’re avoiding making
mistakes okay so that’s everyone and
this is what research shows as well that
most people indeed fear mistakes and for
most of us this is because we interpret
mistakes as an indication that we’re not
good enough we’re not smart enough so
you make a mistake and you think see I
knew I couldn’t do it I can’t I’m not
good enough I’m not talented I’m not
smart whatever your interpretation but
luckily this is only one end of the
spectrum where we interpret mistakes as
inability on the other end of the
spectrum are people that interpret
mistakes not as an inability but simply
as an opportunity so in for this group
of people for most of us our motivation
will drop way down we make a mistake
because we think why continue if I can’t
do it but for this group of people when
you make a mistake you stay motivated so
theoretically you can stay motivated
when you’re doing well
and when you’re not doing well your
motivation stays stable all the time so
actually for this group of people
mistakes don’t even exist right and even
though Naomi and I are very
perfectionist we’ve been given a glimpse
into this sort of mindset in which
mistakes don’t exist by doing something
that is called improvisational theater
or
in broth we both belong to a group that
is called strange things have happened
where we’ve been doing improv for a
while and where we’ve learned many of
the things that we know now and I’m
gonna tell you now what improv is maybe
some of you have already seen it on TV
but I’m gonna tell you
improv is a theater genre in which
everything is completely improvised on
the spot so we basically take a
suggestion from the audience we get a
location we get an object or we get
started and we improvise the dialogue we
improvise the characters and we make up
also their reality and we give
prepositions to one another and we move
this thing forward so for those of you
that have no idea what we’re talking
about have never seen this before we’re
gonna give you a very small illustration
of what an improv scene is and put this
away so as Jenny said we usually start
with a suggestion from the audience so
from you guys anybody can you please
yell out a location something like the
top of the Eiffel Tower or a toilet or
just yell it out a sewage I heard was
the loudest one okay what a sewage which
eat your ground we’re all the garbages
and the officer from the toy queue for
that I didn’t know there was someone
else in this sewage I’m the king of the
sewage now you will be my servant no I
want who told you that you are the king
of the sewage well I have a hat it’s a
crown that’s a weird crown it has the
Emma Donnell’s on it I found it in
the garbage okay so this is our
this was just our illustration of what
improv is clarify so how did we actually
do it well at the base of all Improv
Theater is a very very simple principle
and we call it yes and might have heard
of it before so what this means is first
the yes part means that we accept
everything that’s happening on stage who
we are where we are how we’re feeling we
don’t reject or criticize anything we
accept it as truth as our reality in the
scene then comes a second bit the end
bit which means we have to build on that
we have to use it and let it inform
what’s gonna happen in the next step in
the scene and this is how we move our
scene forward now during any improv
scene I don’t know what I’m gonna say
next I don’t know what Jenny’s gonna say
next and vice versa and because of this
yes and principle were able to deal with
all of this unexpected stuff that might
feel like mistakes throughout the scene
so as you may have already imagined for
a classical musician dealing with
something that is unexpected was
terrifying
so when I started doing improvisation in
music I was always very afraid of laying
a rung note or playing something that
could sound as a mistake what I want to
do now is show you guys what happens
when we take someone who was trained to
fear mistakes for 20 years and let her
continue playing music with this improv
mindset so Jenny’s gonna improvise a
song on the piano and when she makes
mistakes she has to yes and those
mistakes now because jenny was trained
to fear mistakes she doesn’t ever make
mistakes so I’m going to make them for
her to make sure they happen and in a
second I’m gonna ask anybody out here to
help me as well to make sure that we can
prove that I don’t know what I’m doing
so yeah I’m going to end together with
someone else randomly press some keys on
the piano while she’s playing now she’s
not allowed to ignore them she’s not
allowed to just stop playing out of fear
and anxiety she has to accept them and
use them to inform how she’s gonna play
her song does anybody feel like messing
up her song with me I see it
volunteer in the in the back with the
plaid hmm we have very nice people here
[Music]
and what is your name said gay thank you
very much okay let’s make mistakes so
Bull nuts will let Jenny start to let
you know get into a flow and then you
can just follow my lead see what I do
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
that was terrifying once again like
we’ve been practicing this for a while
and every time we tried this I had mini
heart attacks every time they don’t want
to close the keyboard she’s really not
lying every rehearsal she still got
nervous yeah but what I realized for
myself and what I wanted to share with
you guys today is that actually once I
accepted that those things were already
there those mistakes were already there
and I couldn’t change anything about
them and that the only way that I could
move forward was using them my tension
release completely I felt much much less
stressed so what we see here is Jenny’s
own experience of the process became
much more enjoyable much less stressful
when she applied this yes and principal
what about the actual objective outcome
did it sound good say yes if you thought
it sounded good right good so this is a
very concrete example of the idea that
mistakes don’t exist and this actually
could apply to real life as well because
life is unscripted right we don’t have a
plan we are improvising so whether
something that happens is a mistake or
it’s negative is completely subjective
so if I Shakespeare said it himself
there is nothing good or wrong but
thinking makes it so so it is the way we
think about things what makes them
positive or negative so hopefully at
this point many of you are thinking you
know what today is the day that I start
thinking differently today I’m no longer
going to fear mistakes awesome cool but
you can’t convince yourself to think
differently it’s really hard but in my
research I found that you can slowly
develop a new way of thinking so we did
a study where we trained people to use
this yes–and principle every week and
after half a year they reported that
they were naturally responding to stress
to to mistake type things in their lives
in a different way they naturally got
rid of this fear and started an
automatically new way of thinking so
what this means is that we can actually
train ourselves
daily lives to move from one end of the
spectrum to the other end of the
spectrum by simply taking baby steps
don’t convince yourself to change the
way you think practice it in your
everyday life so for example say you
have a great big date coming up and
you’re gonna cook chicken and you’ve
been working for hours in the CH in the
in the kitchen but then you burn the
chicken okay so this is a mistake that
you might respond to respond to by
canceling your date you might continue
your date and just be totally bummed out
the whole time because it’s not going as
you expected or you could yes and that
moment by saying okay yes I burnt the
chicken and now I have no food so let’s
take this as an opportunity to order in
from that great Thai place down the
street
and have a fantastic date and enjoy it
even more than if you would have made
your chicken or imagine that you wanted
to get into some studies and you got
rejected this might actually be an
opportunity for you to find a more
independent way to reach the same goal
right so think about all the
opportunities that you’ve missed out on
because you thought you could make a
mistake or you could fail now if you had
been able to yes and those negative
things or those unwanted things it would
have been much easier for you to
continue moving forward because actually
those negative things would have just
informed the next step that you would
take may be taking you to different
paths but still good so please next time
that you’re faced with something
negative don’t make it stop you just
embrace it use it and continue moving
forward because mistakes don’t actually
exist as long as you use them thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
Jenny is a classical musician she has
been a customization for 20 years and
across these 20 years she has learned
she’s been trained to fear mistakes this
is Miami she’s a psychologist and she’s
been researching where this fear comes
from and how to overcome it and how it
develops she’s also very self-critical
herself I know her well and she never
wants to make mistakes when she’s at her
job so this is us I’m curious if this
sounds familiar to you guys so can you
please raise your hand if you find
sometimes that you are afraid of making
mistakes or that you’re avoiding making
mistakes okay so that’s everyone and
this is what research shows as well that
most people indeed fear mistakes and for
most of us this is because we interpret
mistakes as an indication that we’re not
good enough we’re not smart enough so
you make a mistake and you think see I
knew I couldn’t do it I can’t I’m not
good enough I’m not talented I’m not
smart whatever your interpretation but
luckily this is only one end of the
spectrum where we interpret mistakes as
inability on the other end of the
spectrum are people that interpret
mistakes not as an inability but simply
as an opportunity so in for this group
of people for most of us our motivation
will drop way down we make a mistake
because we think why continue if I can’t
do it but for this group of people when
you make a mistake you stay motivated so
theoretically you can stay motivated
when you’re doing well
and when you’re not doing well your
motivation stays stable all the time so
actually for this group of people
mistakes don’t even exist right and even
though Naomi and I are very
perfectionist we’ve been given a glimpse
into this sort of mindset in which
mistakes don’t exist by doing something
that is called improvisational theater
or
in broth we both belong to a group that
is called strange things have happened
where we’ve been doing improv for a
while and where we’ve learned many of
the things that we know now and I’m
gonna tell you now what improv is maybe
some of you have already seen it on TV
but I’m gonna tell you
improv is a theater genre in which
everything is completely improvised on
the spot so we basically take a
suggestion from the audience we get a
location we get an object or we get
started and we improvise the dialogue we
improvise the characters and we make up
also their reality and we give
prepositions to one another and we move
this thing forward so for those of you
that have no idea what we’re talking
about have never seen this before we’re
gonna give you a very small illustration
of what an improv scene is and put this
away so as Jenny said we usually start
with a suggestion from the audience so
from you guys anybody can you please
yell out a location something like the
top of the Eiffel Tower or a toilet or
just yell it out a sewage I heard was
the loudest one okay what a sewage which
eat your ground we’re all the garbages
and the officer from the toy queue for
that I didn’t know there was someone
else in this sewage I’m the king of the
sewage now you will be my servant no I
want who told you that you are the king
of the sewage well I have a hat it’s a
crown that’s a weird crown it has the
Emma Donnell’s on it I found it in
the garbage okay so this is our
this was just our illustration of what
improv is clarify so how did we actually
do it well at the base of all Improv
Theater is a very very simple principle
and we call it yes and might have heard
of it before so what this means is first
the yes part means that we accept
everything that’s happening on stage who
we are where we are how we’re feeling we
don’t reject or criticize anything we
accept it as truth as our reality in the
scene then comes a second bit the end
bit which means we have to build on that
we have to use it and let it inform
what’s gonna happen in the next step in
the scene and this is how we move our
scene forward now during any improv
scene I don’t know what I’m gonna say
next I don’t know what Jenny’s gonna say
next and vice versa and because of this
yes and principle were able to deal with
all of this unexpected stuff that might
feel like mistakes throughout the scene
so as you may have already imagined for
a classical musician dealing with
something that is unexpected was
terrifying
so when I started doing improvisation in
music I was always very afraid of laying
a rung note or playing something that
could sound as a mistake what I want to
do now is show you guys what happens
when we take someone who was trained to
fear mistakes for 20 years and let her
continue playing music with this improv
mindset so Jenny’s gonna improvise a
song on the piano and when she makes
mistakes she has to yes and those
mistakes now because jenny was trained
to fear mistakes she doesn’t ever make
mistakes so I’m going to make them for
her to make sure they happen and in a
second I’m gonna ask anybody out here to
help me as well to make sure that we can
prove that I don’t know what I’m doing
so yeah I’m going to end together with
someone else randomly press some keys on
the piano while she’s playing now she’s
not allowed to ignore them she’s not
allowed to just stop playing out of fear
and anxiety she has to accept them and
use them to inform how she’s gonna play
her song does anybody feel like messing
up her song with me I see it
volunteer in the in the back with the
plaid hmm we have very nice people here
[Music]
and what is your name said gay thank you
very much okay let’s make mistakes so
Bull nuts will let Jenny start to let
you know get into a flow and then you
can just follow my lead see what I do
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
that was terrifying once again like
we’ve been practicing this for a while
and every time we tried this I had mini
heart attacks every time they don’t want
to close the keyboard she’s really not
lying every rehearsal she still got
nervous yeah but what I realized for
myself and what I wanted to share with
you guys today is that actually once I
accepted that those things were already
there those mistakes were already there
and I couldn’t change anything about
them and that the only way that I could
move forward was using them my tension
release completely I felt much much less
stressed so what we see here is Jenny’s
own experience of the process became
much more enjoyable much less stressful
when she applied this yes and principal
what about the actual objective outcome
did it sound good say yes if you thought
it sounded good right good so this is a
very concrete example of the idea that
mistakes don’t exist and this actually
could apply to real life as well because
life is unscripted right we don’t have a
plan we are improvising so whether
something that happens is a mistake or
it’s negative is completely subjective
so if I Shakespeare said it himself
there is nothing good or wrong but
thinking makes it so so it is the way we
think about things what makes them
positive or negative so hopefully at
this point many of you are thinking you
know what today is the day that I start
thinking differently today I’m no longer
going to fear mistakes awesome cool but
you can’t convince yourself to think
differently it’s really hard but in my
research I found that you can slowly
develop a new way of thinking so we did
a study where we trained people to use
this yes–and principle every week and
after half a year they reported that
they were naturally responding to stress
to to mistake type things in their lives
in a different way they naturally got
rid of this fear and started an
automatically new way of thinking so
what this means is that we can actually
train ourselves
daily lives to move from one end of the
spectrum to the other end of the
spectrum by simply taking baby steps
don’t convince yourself to change the
way you think practice it in your
everyday life so for example say you
have a great big date coming up and
you’re gonna cook chicken and you’ve
been working for hours in the CH in the
in the kitchen but then you burn the
chicken okay so this is a mistake that
you might respond to respond to by
canceling your date you might continue
your date and just be totally bummed out
the whole time because it’s not going as
you expected or you could yes and that
moment by saying okay yes I burnt the
chicken and now I have no food so let’s
take this as an opportunity to order in
from that great Thai place down the
street
and have a fantastic date and enjoy it
even more than if you would have made
your chicken or imagine that you wanted
to get into some studies and you got
rejected this might actually be an
opportunity for you to find a more
independent way to reach the same goal
right so think about all the
opportunities that you’ve missed out on
because you thought you could make a
mistake or you could fail now if you had
been able to yes and those negative
things or those unwanted things it would
have been much easier for you to
continue moving forward because actually
those negative things would have just
informed the next step that you would
take may be taking you to different
paths but still good so please next time
that you’re faced with something
negative don’t make it stop you just
embrace it use it and continue moving
forward because mistakes don’t actually
exist as long as you use them thank you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music] [Applause]
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