CA037: 6 Improv lessons for success in life - with Gary Ware

What have self-development and improv got in common – well quite a lot it turns out, according to our guest in today’s episode of the Changeability Podcast - Gary Ware.

Gary is a breakthrough mixologist! (Listen to find out what that means!)

By day a digital marketer, by night a comedian specialising in improv comedy. 

At the end of a busy day, he also has his own website BreakthroughCocktail.com and a podcast of the same name helping ambitious professionals live up to their full awesomeness potential.

We talk to Gary about how he got to this point and why he took up improvisation, what he’s learnt from it.  How it helps him in his work and life, and what we can learn from it too – even if you don’t want to get up on stage and try it out for yourself.

There’s lots of gems in here but a couple that really resonated with us were:

Say yes – even when out of your comfort zone.  But don’t stop there and don’t say “yes but…”, say “yes and…”  Gary explains what this means most eloquently.

Our perception is failing equals bad – but we can learn more from our failures than our successes. How we perceive and interpret failure is all down to our mindset and what we look for.  And Gary’s looking for fun. We’re working on this!

 

Quote

“You can't connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.” Steve Jobs

In episode 37 we find out:

• Who is Gary Ware and why ‘Breakthrough Cocktail’
• What a breakthrough mixologist does
• How Gary got to where he is now
• How failure helped Gary succeed
• The power of a mentor’s influence
• Why Gary took up improv
• How scary was it
• 6 principles of improv we could all benefit from using everyday
• Why Gary’s on the lookout for fun
• 2 important common themes from Gary’s podcast guests
• The beauty of lateral growth and what it is

 

Resources links mentioned in this episode

• Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi  Flow: The Psychology of Happiness: The Classic Work on How to Achieve Happiness
• Episode 34 - Is Gratitude the best attitude?
• Episode 35 - Getting the gratitude habit
• Episode 36 - 15 ways to practice the art of appreciation

Find our more about Gary or contact him at:

• BreakthroughCocktail.com
• BreakthroughCocktail Podcast

 

If you enjoyed this episode tweet Gary a tweet to let him know @GaryWare