I’ve fallen in love with a gem of a book, Patricia Ryan Madson’s Improv Wisdom. Madson is a retired professor of drama at Stanford University, with lots of credits in the areas of improv and creativity.

Less than 150 pages, the book is a quick read. It is organized by principles of improvisation that, when applied to everyday living, make for a better life. My copy of the book has numerous pages dog-earred with sentences underlined and notes in the margins. A few of my favorite lines:

"A good improviser is someone who is awake, not entirely self-focused, and moved by a desire to do something useful and give something back and who acts upon this impulse."

"Consummate improvisers are marked by their generosity, courtesy, and abililty to watch out for the needs of their teammates."

"The practice of improvisation…teaches [us] how to be in harmony with one another and how to have fun."

"Showing up is the key principle when we offer service to others. So often it is our presence alone, rather than some special ability, that makes the difference."

"The improviser focuses on making [an] idea into a good one, rather than searching for a "good idea."

"Never let an hour go by without giving credit to someone…Cultivate a generosity of speech."

"A constructive response to a mistake is to notice it, acknowledge it, and, if possible, use it….a mistake is just an unanticipated outcome giving us information."

In addition to her wisdom, Madson has provided exercises to strengthen our improv muscles–games to play with friends, small experiments in living differently, and new thoughts and beliefs to try on.

Postscript: Madson and I connected as a result of this posting. She’s a lovely woman. A mutual friend points me to this YouTube video when she spoke as part of the Authors@Google series.