In this brief motivational talk delivered in Sacramento on June 24, the speaker introduces the theme of "yes" by exploring the improv principle of "interrupting the routine." He explains how deliberately breaking habitual patterns can create fresh perspectives, foster personal growth, and generate new stories, drawing parallels to how life’s unexpected disruptions often lead to wisdom. To embody this concept, he announces an unconventional, audience‑driven presentation format where random topics will be displayed and the crowd will choose the order and content, making the session itself an experiment in routine interruption. He closes with a direct call to listeners to identify any aspect of their lives—big or small—that could benefit from a purposeful disruption, encouraging them to "rock it" and embrace the change.
Chapters
Good morning everyone. Here is your moment of yes for Friday, June 24th. Yeah, Friday, June 24th. I'm out in Sacramento, California. First time in Sacramento speaking at a conference today and tomorrow. It's a really small intimate group. A friend of mine is putting this conference on and so I'm getting a chance to talk about yes and today and tomorrow from an individual standpoint today and then from a team and systemic academic standpoint tomorrow. So in thinking about sort of what to present and thinking about it's a really informal environment, small group, it'll be really interactive, I thought about how I should do something different, right? I should, I should mix it up. I should interrupt the routine. Yes. So Hollister and I have been speaking a lot recently about the improv concept of interrupting the routine. Interrupting the routine is when things seem to be going in a certain direction You make a choice that completely kind of shakes up the scene, i.e., makes it interesting and creates a completely new story, a new scene. That's what makes improv interesting. And so if you read my book, right, one of the chapters is called Interrupting the Routine, which is for ourselves. Often if we want to shake things up or infuse some new life into something that's stale, you need to interrupt the routine in order to experience something new, to get a new perspective. Life has a way of doing that for us if we choose to not do it ourselves. And I've tried to do that when life kind of throws you a curveball or drops, you know, a tragedy in your lap or whatever it is. It's always a huge interruption of the routine. We seldom like it. And I was going to say but, but, and by going through it, we end up usually growing, getting stronger, having, having more wisdom, more knowledge. Obviously, when we can choose to do it, it feels safer. When it's thrust upon us, it's a little scarier. But at the end of the day, it's the interruption of the routine, which is where all the gold is at. And so today for my presentation, I'm gonna do— I'm gonna present in a way that I've never presented before. I'm gonna kind of just have a bunch of random topics on the board and let the audience decide what they want me to address and what order they want me to address it in and just kind of see where it goes. So it will definitely be new. So I'm excited about what am I going to learn from this process. So for you, is there something that you need to interrupt? Is there a part of your life, big or small, that needs an interruption of the routine? What's that look like? What's that feel like for you today? Whatever it is, rock it. Have a great day and have a great weekend, everyone. I'll see you Monday from Jupiter.
