Notes From Tina Fey

I like to think that great ideas are all around us. We just have to let ourselves see or hear them. This month my thoughts started from a bit in the book Bossypants by Tina Fey. (I will admit that for Hallowe’en two years ago I dressed up at Tina Fey doing Sarah Pallin…  I had her accent down cold. I may be a fan – of Fey- not Pallin!) I have no authority by the publisher or author… but here is a bit from the book. Sadly, I’ve taken all the funny bits out for brevity.

Fey lists some “Rules of Improvisation”:

  1. Always AGREE and say YES – if you don’t your scene will ground to halt
  2. After saying YES… add something to the scene with AND… if you don’t, again you’ve come to a standstill
  3. Make statements – in other words, whatever the problem be part of the solution. “Instead of saying –Where are we? Say –Here we are in Spain, Dracula”
  4. There are no mistakes.  Many of the world’s greatest discoveries have been by accident.

What struck me as applicable to the life of a high performance athletes came as she presented the first rule. Continue reading