Last Wednesday night, the group I perform improv comedy with, Authentic Juice, and I played a show at the Voodoo Comedy Lounge. (Some of them are in the pic.)
It was not a good show. The energy was low. The scenes were confusing and lacked development.
When we met afterward to talk about our performance, you could see on all of our faces that we were disappointed. We discussed what we could have done better so that we could learn from our poor performance.
Then we all said, almost simultaneously, sometimes it’s gonna suck. And you could feel a collective sigh being released as we let go of it having to have been great.
It’s like the idea of writing crappy first drafts – they make the way for better drafts to come. Our not-so-great performance will make the way for better performances because now we know what it feels like. We know we want to do better. We know what didn’t work. We know we need to continue to perfect our craft.
Sometimes you suck and that’s ok. You don’t die. You learn. You do it again.
Don’t let poor performances or crappy first drafts stop you. Creation doesn’t begin perfectly. Creation is the art of perfecting your craft – it takes persistence, patience, and dedication (and, often, suspending your inner critic!).
Be willing to look like a fool, mess up, draw something awful, write something terrible, stumble when you dance, forget your lines, get tongue-tied, and most of all, be willing to laugh at yourself. It is all part of the process of becoming you – your most authentic you.
You are doing it. You are putting yourself out there. You are taking a chance on you and what matters to you. You are not waiting for perfection. You are risking failure, rejection, and embarrassment. Why? Because that’s how you learn. That’s how you grow. That’s how you eventually succeed. And, succeed, you most certainly will.
What can you do today to take a chance on you? (Without worrying how it goes or what anyone else will think?)