An improvisation principle: make your scene partner look like a genius. The speaker argues this shifts you out of your head and into presence, and works offstage too. Apply it with coworkers, spouses, kids, strangers. When you focus on making others feel brilliant, you create positive energy that meets your own needs.
Good morning. Here is your Moment of Yes. And before I start today, I've been getting some nice love from some of you out there across the country. So I want to give love to Perry in the Mountain Time Zone, as well as AG and SP out on the West Coast. As you guys get up this morning, hello. Thanks for watching and following. Here is your Moment of Yes. There's this huge idea in improvisation that I love. And the idea is this: when you go on stage, your only goal is to make your scene partner look like a genius. And this runs totally counterintuitive to what a performer feels like when they step on stage. Because your instinct is, I need to take care of myself. I need to think about what I'm going to do, what I'm going to say, who I'm going to be. And you just get lost in your head. You lose the focus. You lose the presence and the awareness of being in the moment. Because you get so lost in your head. Now, this idea of make your scene partner look like a genius transcends the stage. As you go through your day today, think about how am I making my coworker, my spouse, my kids, the stranger that I just met— how am I making them look and feel like a genius? When we shift our focus away from what I need and what I can get to what I can give, We start to bless others, take care of others, and that energy and that spirit and that love that we create by doing that envelops us and surrounds us in that same giving spirit. Our needs are met because we're meeting other people's needs, and it's a wonderful, wonderful energy to feel. So today, your moment of yes is make someone else feel like a genius. Have that be your focus today and see what happens as a result. That's your moment of yes. Have a wonderful, wonderful Friday.
