Resolved

New Year's is a funny thing – tis the season for reflection, to paraphrase, and its around this time that everyone sets to reminiscing, remembering their top five things they did, movies they saw, trips they took et cetera, but it's also the time for looking ahead. And even though in reality there will be no difference between you when you woke up on December 31 and you when you wake up on January 1 (barring any body switching or magic spells, a la “Freaky Friday” or “13 Going on 30”, respectively), there does happen to at least feel like there is a certain finality or changing from the old into new involved. It's also at this time we make our resolutions lists, though for some reason, resolutions don't seem to be done as much any more as they used to. Resolutions, no matter how quickly we may cast them aside – most probably not past the first few weeks of January – are a useful tool. We like to think about who we are, and who we'd like to be, and our resolutions are a guide for reaching that goal.

“I resolve to go to the gym three times a week.” The problem is, we usually let up here and there (“Alright, I can't go three times this week, but I'll go two this week and four next week to make up for it”) and then we just drop them altogether (“Whatever, I can't go this month. I'll try again in February.”) Improv resolutions are no different (“I resolve to do some sort of mime work in every scene I'm in.”) It's good to make them, as it encourages us to work towards something, which in itself is probably one of the biggest sticking points most improvisers have that keeps us from moving forward. So this lesson obviously isn't about resolutions, because the best I could do is provide you some of mine, which won't help you, the reader out, save to find out where I think I am and where I think I want to go – instead, the lesson I want to impart is that resolutions don't have to be so absolute. New Year's is the holiday of resolutions, but we put a lot of burden on ourselves by making only day a year set aside for them. When we run into trouble in a few weeks, we abandon them altogether and just move on. If you make a resolution to get better – at whatever, improv or otherwise – I recommend this: if you miss your goal in a scene or forget or whatever, just note it, and resolve to do it next time. Just because you missed it once doesn't mean it's over, or to adapt a saying, improv isn't a destination, its a journey. Take some of the burden off yourself, think about what you'd like to improve on, and just keep at it. You might forget the first few times, but such is the nature of adapting a new habit (or breaking an old habit, which is even harder). This really just falls under the more general heading of making your resolutions more reasonable. The guy who wants to go the gym three times a week when previously he went none is in trouble, because that's a huge jump, and the bigger you make your goals, the more willing you have to be in giving yourself slack.

“I resolve to be more willing to take risks, both on stage and in life.”