Start With Yes

“The first rule of improvisation is AGREE. Always agree and SAY YES. When you’re improvising, this means you are required to agree with whatever your partner has created.” -Tina Fey

“Saying ‘yes’ begins things. Saying ‘yes’ is how things grow. Saying ‘yes’ leads to knowledge.” -Stephen Colbert

“Our first energy has to be “yes” energy, an acceptance of what is. From there we can move, build, and proceed, even if in opposition. We must choose the positive, which is to choose love.” -Richard Rohr

“Because the terms that you have invented, which you think describe and define you, inevitably collide with the facts of life. When this collision occurs—and, make no mistake, this is an absolutely inevitable collision—when this collision occurs, life offers you the choice, and it’s a very narrow choice, of holding on to your definition of yourself or saying, as the old folks used to say, and as everybody who wants to live has to say: Yes, Lord. Which is to say yes to life.” -James Baldwin

Just like every great improv scene starts with “Yes”, every great experience you will have ever have in your life, including the tough learning ones, must start with “Yes.”

You must say “Yes” to all that life throws at you.

It’s the only way to grow.

Open. Open. Open.

Yes. Yes. Yes.