Here’s another principal of Improv that will help you be more creative. Absorb. Listen. Allow. To make a good scene work, you have to allow others to have their ideas, being the smartest guy in the room doesn’t help in Improv if you dominate and steer scenes in only your direction. You are clever, funny and brilliant: you are even more clever, funny and brilliant when you bring these traits out in others.

“How can I serve? How can I help? How can I make a difference? How can I leave the world better than I found it?” Wayne Dyer, my hero, is talking about something called the Shift, a way we begin to look at the world as we grow older, the ultimate and best outcome of Middle Aged Crazy. It’s no longer about ego, about finding ourselves, about “leaving our mark”. It is no longer about “how people remember me”, instead it is, “how can I be a better member of my family, my community, my planet?”

If you feel something like this, you are shifting. Good for you. Enjoy it. Accept it. Live it. You have accumulated unique experiences, traveled your own path; now you have something to share. It’s not about you anymore: it is about you being one with everything. You don’t have to be right all the time, sometimes, you are most powerful when you are authentically you. Powerful, strong and wise.

I had this Middle Aged Crazy talk with a tree this week. It said to me exactly what God said to Moses, “I am.” It did not strive for greatness, to be more than it is, to live up to expectations. It simply was. Magnificent and Strong. Nothing more than a tree. It provided shade, oxygen, a home to hundreds of birds and critters, seeds for its offsprings. It was part of the world. A proud part.

So am I.

So are you.

“No one has to ask “what is my purpose?” If you can, just for one day, focus on service, on doing just one thing to make life better for someone else, that’s how God thinks.” Wayne Dyer.

In Improv, we learn that you can’t create a scene alone and you can’t expect everyone to follow your design. Instead, we learn to work with others, to weave our unique designs together to make new and unique scenes. I have a friend who prays every morning, “Who can I serve today?” I know lots of teachers, nurses, caregivers and others whose daily mission is simply to improve the life of others by being there. They create unique, selfless scenes all day that wouldn’t be possible without their participation. They show up.

We are all artists. We all create unique scenes.

“Who can I serve today?”