[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I am terrified I am absolutely scared
and frankly I’m filled with fear every
single day of my life
but that’s okay because I’m kind of
aiming to live life outside my comfort
zone
you see I do this ridiculous thing
called improv it’s acting without a
script performing without a plan actors
will go on stage sometimes in front of
hundreds of people with absolutely no
idea of what they’re going to say and
that may seem like the scariest thing in
the world especially if you’re someone
who’s used to sitting an audience but
the thing is improvisers are all
equipped with a tool belt of knowledge a
knowledge that helps us deal with the
uncomfortable and sudden changes on the
fly we learn how to fail how to say yes
and how to work with others how to
accept ideas how to commit and how to
feel confident while looking like an
absolute fool on stage these lessons
aren’t just for improvisers and they’re
not just for the stage either they bleed
into every single aspect of your life
and they helped me navigate my way
through my uncertain ocean of fear I
think the worst part of failure is the
regret that comes with it because we all
have regrets and we all make mistakes
but it’s how we deal with those failures
that matters for example I’m going to
make a very big mistake right now I just
dabbed during a TED talk that was cringy
and awkward and embarrassing but I’m not
gonna let myself regret it because when
we fail or make a mistake our regrets
can consume us stopping us from doing
the things that we love or taking new
opportunities because we’re scared that
we’re going to fall fail again in improv
it’s be able to being able to say
something wrong on stage or even maybe
give the worst performance of your
entire life and be able to not only
smile through it and move on but
immediate
forgive yourself – in improv when you
fail the scene doesn’t fail it just went
somewhere different that she didn’t know
it would and that’s what improv is the
best place to learn how to fail it’s a
place where there are no mistakes where
everything you say is immediately
accepted and everything you do is
surrounded by support and Trust failing
joyously can is it can be very very hard
because embarrassment is terrifying
but I’ve managed to find a system that
works for me and it’s just three simple
steps to breathe acknowledge and move on
it starts with the moment of failure you
give yourself a deep calming breath and
take a second for any deep shame guilt
and panic can set in and then you
acknowledge that you just messed up that
you just embarrassed yourself that you
want to go hide underneath a rock and
then you move on because there’s no use
dwelling in the past improvisers are
taught to commit themselves to the
moment to be present in what’s happening
right now on stage and there’s no way to
do that when you’re focused on something
you said that didn’t work I think that
the best piece of improv advice I’ve
ever received is something that holds
merit in the real world as well
and that was to stop trying to be clever
and to just say something that’s true to
your character in improv pre-loading is
the idea of when you go into a scene
with an idea with a plan of exactly
what’s going to happen but what we
forget in improv is that your scene
partners have their own ideas and they
can’t read your mind and in the real
world it’s unpredictable and it doesn’t
like to follow a script so we ask
ourselves what happens when we fail what
happens when we suddenly have to live a
life unscripted let’s get to why we like
to preload pre-loading is a safety net
we preload so we can avoid failure when
it’s often what leads us to failing in
the first place I preload – and
so people will think that I’m funny that
I’m smart and clever but pre-loading is
the illusion of a safety net and it’s
really the people in our lives or our
scene partners who we can fall back on
when we make a mistake and learning how
to abandon pre-loading is really hard
because we all just want to impress
other people I mean how many people at
school are more focused on their
appearances or being with the in-crowd
than their education and how many people
have spent like 20 minutes on an
Instagram caption because it had to be
perfect because me too
living in the moment isn’t supposed to
be perfect it’s messy and sometimes it
doesn’t work out but it’s authentic and
it’s fun I think that sometimes no
matter how prepared or confident you are
failure is still going to happen and
it’s going to hurt surprisingly improv
isn’t the only thing that I do I’m also
a huge lover of student council I love
it and I have one goal in mind ever
since junior high
I knew my number one goal for high
school and it was to be student council
president my presidents had all been
huge inspirations in my life and I
wanted nothing more to inspire someone
like they had inspired me so I took the
risk I knew that if I wanted to do this
I had to push past all my fears and
insecurities and just commit myself to
handing over my bleeding beating heart
to the school population for their
judgement I didn’t know what people
would perceive of me or if they would
reject me but I did it and the thing was
I was so confident I’m an optimist
and I created this preconceived idea of
how amazing everything was going to turn
out and maybe that’s what made hurting
blue losing her even more but I remember
just feeling numb after I got the
results realizing that this was my one
shot and I blew it
realizing that in an instant the PA
would have announced the worst fears in
my life and in an instant every single
person would know that I had lost I had
always been afraid of failure but what
scared me even more was people knowing
that I failed before I couldn’t imagine
a world where I lost and I certainly
couldn’t imagine a world where I lost
and I was happy but I’m proud to admit
that I was very wrong in improv we don’t
have time to mourn our failures when we
make a mistake we have to immediately
accept it and move on so we can create
something else that’s wonderful and it’s
when we start abandoning our regrets
that amazing things can happen since
then I have accomplished so many things
that are really important to me I’ve
competed in the Canadian improv games
national tournament three times I’ve won
awards and I’ve done improv shows and
I’ve organised multiple school events
and I’ve even hosted a few and I’m
really happy remembering those lessons
the through improv helped me get to that
place where I’m really happy but I’m
only successful because I’m a failure
because I messed up and I kept trying we
can’t the thing is we can’t get rid of
fear we’re gonna like push through it to
make the best of the situation I’m
definitely not perfect and I never will
be and I’m gonna make so many mistakes
and I’m okay with that
in fact I’m pumped failing joyously
isn’t about not being scared
it’s about being terrified and doing it
anyways so please remember that your
mistakes are not the end of the world
that you should never let fear stop you
from doing what you love that you should
greet mistakes by breathing
acknowledging and moving on and to start
failing with a smile on your face thank
you
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
I am terrified I am absolutely scared
and frankly I’m filled with fear every
single day of my life
but that’s okay because I’m kind of
aiming to live life outside my comfort
zone
you see I do this ridiculous thing
called improv it’s acting without a
script performing without a plan actors
will go on stage sometimes in front of
hundreds of people with absolutely no
idea of what they’re going to say and
that may seem like the scariest thing in
the world especially if you’re someone
who’s used to sitting an audience but
the thing is improvisers are all
equipped with a tool belt of knowledge a
knowledge that helps us deal with the
uncomfortable and sudden changes on the
fly we learn how to fail how to say yes
and how to work with others how to
accept ideas how to commit and how to
feel confident while looking like an
absolute fool on stage these lessons
aren’t just for improvisers and they’re
not just for the stage either they bleed
into every single aspect of your life
and they helped me navigate my way
through my uncertain ocean of fear I
think the worst part of failure is the
regret that comes with it because we all
have regrets and we all make mistakes
but it’s how we deal with those failures
that matters for example I’m going to
make a very big mistake right now I just
dabbed during a TED talk that was cringy
and awkward and embarrassing but I’m not
gonna let myself regret it because when
we fail or make a mistake our regrets
can consume us stopping us from doing
the things that we love or taking new
opportunities because we’re scared that
we’re going to fall fail again in improv
it’s be able to being able to say
something wrong on stage or even maybe
give the worst performance of your
entire life and be able to not only
smile through it and move on but
immediate
forgive yourself – in improv when you
fail the scene doesn’t fail it just went
somewhere different that she didn’t know
it would and that’s what improv is the
best place to learn how to fail it’s a
place where there are no mistakes where
everything you say is immediately
accepted and everything you do is
surrounded by support and Trust failing
joyously can is it can be very very hard
because embarrassment is terrifying
but I’ve managed to find a system that
works for me and it’s just three simple
steps to breathe acknowledge and move on
it starts with the moment of failure you
give yourself a deep calming breath and
take a second for any deep shame guilt
and panic can set in and then you
acknowledge that you just messed up that
you just embarrassed yourself that you
want to go hide underneath a rock and
then you move on because there’s no use
dwelling in the past improvisers are
taught to commit themselves to the
moment to be present in what’s happening
right now on stage and there’s no way to
do that when you’re focused on something
you said that didn’t work I think that
the best piece of improv advice I’ve
ever received is something that holds
merit in the real world as well
and that was to stop trying to be clever
and to just say something that’s true to
your character in improv pre-loading is
the idea of when you go into a scene
with an idea with a plan of exactly
what’s going to happen but what we
forget in improv is that your scene
partners have their own ideas and they
can’t read your mind and in the real
world it’s unpredictable and it doesn’t
like to follow a script so we ask
ourselves what happens when we fail what
happens when we suddenly have to live a
life unscripted let’s get to why we like
to preload pre-loading is a safety net
we preload so we can avoid failure when
it’s often what leads us to failing in
the first place I preload – and
so people will think that I’m funny that
I’m smart and clever but pre-loading is
the illusion of a safety net and it’s
really the people in our lives or our
scene partners who we can fall back on
when we make a mistake and learning how
to abandon pre-loading is really hard
because we all just want to impress
other people I mean how many people at
school are more focused on their
appearances or being with the in-crowd
than their education and how many people
have spent like 20 minutes on an
Instagram caption because it had to be
perfect because me too
living in the moment isn’t supposed to
be perfect it’s messy and sometimes it
doesn’t work out but it’s authentic and
it’s fun I think that sometimes no
matter how prepared or confident you are
failure is still going to happen and
it’s going to hurt surprisingly improv
isn’t the only thing that I do I’m also
a huge lover of student council I love
it and I have one goal in mind ever
since junior high
I knew my number one goal for high
school and it was to be student council
president my presidents had all been
huge inspirations in my life and I
wanted nothing more to inspire someone
like they had inspired me so I took the
risk I knew that if I wanted to do this
I had to push past all my fears and
insecurities and just commit myself to
handing over my bleeding beating heart
to the school population for their
judgement I didn’t know what people
would perceive of me or if they would
reject me but I did it and the thing was
I was so confident I’m an optimist
and I created this preconceived idea of
how amazing everything was going to turn
out and maybe that’s what made hurting
blue losing her even more but I remember
just feeling numb after I got the
results realizing that this was my one
shot and I blew it
realizing that in an instant the PA
would have announced the worst fears in
my life and in an instant every single
person would know that I had lost I had
always been afraid of failure but what
scared me even more was people knowing
that I failed before I couldn’t imagine
a world where I lost and I certainly
couldn’t imagine a world where I lost
and I was happy but I’m proud to admit
that I was very wrong in improv we don’t
have time to mourn our failures when we
make a mistake we have to immediately
accept it and move on so we can create
something else that’s wonderful and it’s
when we start abandoning our regrets
that amazing things can happen since
then I have accomplished so many things
that are really important to me I’ve
competed in the Canadian improv games
national tournament three times I’ve won
awards and I’ve done improv shows and
I’ve organised multiple school events
and I’ve even hosted a few and I’m
really happy remembering those lessons
the through improv helped me get to that
place where I’m really happy but I’m
only successful because I’m a failure
because I messed up and I kept trying we
can’t the thing is we can’t get rid of
fear we’re gonna like push through it to
make the best of the situation I’m
definitely not perfect and I never will
be and I’m gonna make so many mistakes
and I’m okay with that
in fact I’m pumped failing joyously
isn’t about not being scared
it’s about being terrified and doing it
anyways so please remember that your
mistakes are not the end of the world
that you should never let fear stop you
from doing what you love that you should
greet mistakes by breathing
acknowledging and moving on and to start
failing with a smile on your face thank
you
[Music]
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