How we feel about our Spring 2022 plans so far. ⬆️

For those of you who like to plan ahead, feel in control, and know what's coming, living through another pandemic winter is likely wearing you out.

Make plans. Change plans. Erase, edit, revise, republish.

What if we changed our expectations? What if we made plans with built-in flexibility? What if we expected change?

What if we improvised?

When I introduce improvisation to my students, many of them think it means making up something in the moment. For those of us who come from a classical background, this makes us uncomfortable. We like structure and safety and certainty. We don't like being put on the spot.

But improvisation actually means making musical decisions in the moment. It means learning and practicing and developing a collection of ideas and patterns and picking and choosing which ones to use in the moment and what order to put them in.

What if we applied this mentality to our work this month?

Start by creating a collection of ideas and possibilities, things you can mix and match as needed if or when plans change or things get disrupted. How could you rearrange those ideas into something new?

In her book, Keep Moving: Notes on Loss, Creativity, and Change, Maggie Smith writes, “To revise means, literally, ‘to look at again,’ to re-envision.”

2022 may not be what we expected so far, but let's take another look. Let's re-envision what it could be if we're willing to improvise a little.