a teriffic little book, with applications to life

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	• Improv Wisdom: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up Patricia Ryan Madson Harmony/Bell Tower, 2005 - 160 pages average customer review:based on 30 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A Remarkable Book!

Improv Wisdom is a remarkable book. Part self-help, part Zen guide book, Madson has come up with a theory and system to living life that is contrary to everything you might think is true, and dead on to everything you know is true.

Instead of utilizing the accepted techniques of planning and preparation, Madson tells readers to jump head first into situations. Using skills of improvisational theater that she's honed over the years teaching drama, she takes us down a path of living: living each moment, seeing every bit of it as it happens. Instead of fixating on flaws, we learn to delight in every tiny piece of every situation, both good and bad. Instead of obsessing over what might happen, she tells us to jump in and deal with things as they do happen.

Like a Zen master, she tells us to be completely present in life, each and every moment. She tells us that it's okay to feel insecure and overwhelmed. And that maybe trying to think out every possible scenario that can happen is the root and cause of our anxiety. Spontaneity does away with our feelings of beleaguerment and lets the goodness of each moment show itself. It allows us to live the meaningful lives we always thought we would live, before we allowed ourselves to be burdened by reality. She believes we should not plan every step to the future, but should live in and enjoy the "now."

Ms. Madson doesn't purport to have all the answers, just offers one alternative. She doesn't say it will solve all your problems or instantly make you happy, but at the very least, it may make the journey a little more interesting.

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Improv Wisdom is my daily devotional

I devoured Improv Wisdom the first time through, recognizing immediately the value on each page. Then I gave a copy to each of my adult children and to two of my best friends. And now I keep the book by my bed so that every morning I can open to a page at random and make the message on that page be my focus for the day.

It's amazing what small shifts have resulted from this practice. After two months these small shifts in attitude and behavior have led to some major positive changes in my life. Life is happening NOW; Madsen's maxims give you a way to milk each moment as it unfolds.

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Ready to read it again

I just finished reading Improv Wisdom this morning and was ready to start again. Patricia's ideas are immediately useful and applicable to everyday life. Writing this review is proof, as I'm not typically prone to do so.

Make up your part as you go along

This book reminds me of another one I read and reviewed recently, Walter Mosley's This Year You Write Your Novel. Both emphasize the importance of just getting down to business, and relying on your subconscious to take over when you need it to.

Like the author, I am a big fan of Keith Johnstone's Impro: Improvisation and the Theatre, and very much agree with his idea of not trying too hard to say something witty, funny or off the wall (which makes "Friends" such a silly and implausible program) - that only leads you away from the seemingly trivial routines, exchanges and dilemmas that are the stuff of our life, and that are therefore what we are most able to identify with and most interested in exploring.

I like how the author is careful to qualify her advice, e.g. when *not* to improvise, and how she keeps everything solidly grounded in reality without over-idealizing. Although you can't put into practice everything she suggests all the time, and you'll sometimes forget some of the principles and lose focus, you can use the chapter titles as handy reminders. "Paying attention" is a chapter I especially took to heart, since it is so easy to lose oneself in one's work and use it as an excuse for not attending to other important things, like remembering people's names. Madson's thoughts on "making mistakes" were refreshing and insightful - mistakes are our most persistent and individualized teachers, and we should treat them with due respect rather than just knee-jerk embarrassment or shame. "Saying yes" is a basic starting point with much life-improving potential; it's so easy to be safe and conventional - and never get anywhere interesting. This book contains grains of gold collected over decades of trial and error, careful thought, and successes, in both improvisational theater and everyday life. It is our own loss if we do not avail ourselves of the long years of prospecting and panning others have already done for us.

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a teriffic little book, with applications to life

I love this book. There are so many great ideas that apply quite nicely to life. She's done a lot of thinking about being happy, and it shows. Highly recommended.

More at: Great time management ideas from the world of improv wisdom
http://ideamatt.blogspot.com/2006/07/great-time-management-ideas-from-world.html

reviews: 1, page 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

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