Over the next 30 years, I figure I’ll be saving myself quite a bit of time by making this simple “sacrifice”.  Though it’s really not a sacrifice, as the benefits are easy to see.

Here’s what I figure.

Say checking email wastes 20 seconds (in terms of waiting for the email to arrive, and also in terms of time spent to get back to what i was doing).

Assuming that I check email once a day, rather than say 4, I’m saving

3 * 20 seconds = 1 minute per day
365 minutes per year =  6 hours / year
180 hours over the next 30 years

If I had a full time job doing nothing but checking email, this would equate to me working full time for 4 1/2 weeks.

Working full time for 4 1/2 weeks for no pay only to only check my email?

No thanks.  I’ll find something else to do with my time.

One of the things we discussed today is how it is useful in Improv not to deny, disagree or question what your partner is doing when you’re on the stage.  It kind of kills the energy and doesn’t expand the story.

Here’s an example:

You: Man I’m starting this blog today!
Me: Yeah, that’s cool, but it’s not going to work.  There’s too much competition.
You: Yeah, but it will work.  This is why…blah blah blah

The interesting thing is that this kind of communication is really common.  Generally disagreeing, deflating or responding with a “Yeah, but…” kind of sentence happens a lot.  In fact, it was very difficult for many of the people in class to break this habit.

In Improv taking the time to respond to someone’s denial doesn’t doesn’t really go anywhere.  It’s not normally useful in advancing the storyline, and ultimately is not that entertaining.

In life too, communication through disagreement and denial doesn’t really go anywhere either.  One person is excited about something, and the other is essentially using energy to try and break down that excitement.

Not to say that there’s no place for disagreement.  The thing I found interesting in class today was how habitual denial was so commonplace.

Now that I’ve become sensitive to listening for denials (even outside of class), I see it going on a lot.

I wonder what the inherent usefulness of it is (if any).  I’m going to try and avoid denials for the next month or so and see how it affects my communication and relationships.  Heck, I notice I even do it to myself sometimes when I have I idea.  I’ll try and avoid that too.

Interesting idea, but…

Huh?  Don’t we all have room to grow?  Aren’t we all imperfect?

Well, yes and no.

So often when discussing personal growth, we hear about destinations.  Dreams that you work towards.  An ideal that you eventually become.  While that certainly makes sense, there is another way of looking at it (of course, there are many ways of looking at it).

You are already perfect.

Michaelangelo said this – “In every block of marble I see a statue as plain as though it stood before me, shaped and perfect in attitude and action. I have only to hew away the rough walls that imprison the lovely apparition to reveal it to the other eyes as mine see it.”

We are all masterpieces. We have only to chip away the imperfections that disguise our own perfection from the rest of the world.

Looking at ourselves, many of us only see the block of marble, the crude form that hides our own perfect beauty.  We may think to ourselves,  “Wow, I really wish I could be different.  To be like someone else.  To be fearless.  Confident.  I wish I could be like that.”

You already are!

By removing the pieces of ourselves that do not fit, chipping away the imperfections, we gradually reveal our own spectacular selves to the world and everyone around us.