<aside> 💡 Here’s a visual metaphor about acquiring new skills that Vinny François taught me.

I think about it most days.

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When you’re a true beginner at something (let’s say … I don’t know … improv) then your visualisation of success and your ability to deliver that success are more-or-less equal.

As in, you don’t know what success looks like, so anything you do feels like a win.

To represent that physically, in these pictures, my left hand represents your ability to do improv and my right hand represents your expectation of what good improv looks like - your taste in improv.

(My dog, Radio doesn’t represent anything, he just lay in the background and began licking himself as I took the pictures).

So here we go, both hands are pressed together. They are basically one and the same. Everything you do as a beginner feels amazing because it’s all breaking new ground. You are the best improviser you know.

But then you go and see an improv show, or someone else in your class does something amazing. Then your expectations, your taste in improv, gets heightened.

OH NO! Now there’s clear daylight between what you know is possible and what you’re able to achieve personally. You resolve to try harder and get better.

HOORAY! But now you love improv. So you go and see more shows, and your expectations get higher and higher. You are beginning to become a connoisseur of improv.