Photo by Karan Karnik on Unsplash
A toxic story in the leadership development world is that “productive” (translation=high-earning $) people get up very early, before sunrise to be precise, to write their great American novel / business leadership book / bossy emails in quietude. This is after an intense 4:23 am workout, of course.
So when I woke up this morning before my alarm angry at perimenopause, I thought, “hey” may as well write something mediocre and wait for those sweet $$$ to come a-flowin’.
My one word intention for 2026 is WELL-BEING. Hyphen is optional.
For starters, everyone should get maximum sleepy time. But like me if that is elusive, there are other things you can do to increase your happiness. One of those is improv.
I started the year with leading a free public workshop Improv for Well-being at the third space, Fabrik in NYC. I began with the prompt: What are challenges to your well-being?
Following our fears means we name them first.
Here are my well-being challenges that affect how I think & feel about my life:
Financial strains as a self-employed business owner
The price of everything
Being a parent
The monsters of perimenopause haunting my body, lack of sleep one curse of many
Other folks named career pivots, life transitions, being new to this country, new to entrepreneurship, digital tools & doomscrolling, AI and more. For 90 minutes we dove in and explored how improv’s principles and exercises can help us reduce stress, foster connections, and lead with bravery.
While Follow the Fear, the business is nearly 10 years old, this is a life mantra I discovered back in 2010 after I got dumped like that Sex in the City episode when Berger broke-up with Carrie on a post-it note. My post-it note was a long convoluted email after 7 days of being ghosted.
Listen, that’s a story for another time one that I’ll put into my memoir book of essays I have yet to write. But the short version is here in case you’re curious.
After that epically dumb break-up I was a sad, numb, lost soul so I decided to try new things–things that scared me–to rediscover myself.
This included:
jumping out of a plane (I survived! 5 out of 5 stars)
learning to snowboard having never skied (-3 out of 5 stars if you live on the icy east coast. 5 stars if you can get your butt to the west coast)
intro to improv at The Magnet Theater in NYC (love at 1st sight)
I walked into an intro class with a friend who I dragged with me not knowing what to expect. The group was small around 15 strangers and led by the theater’s founder, Armando Diaz, an improv legend though I had no idea at the time. He lead us through movement games in circles, games of sharing true stories with partners, rants about things we dislike, and other fun exercises I forgot. We indulged in pure silliness, bathed in laughter.
It was the most supportive environment I’d experienced since I was a little kid. I felt easy and free. I existed out of my head for two hours since my break-up. Anxiety took a backseat to play.
Why does improv boost well-being? The key is learning more about well-being and how us humans are actually crap at managing it.
I love how she says it’s about cultivating behaviors, meaning how we feel about our life is not fixed. Her free course is great! Apparently money and shiny new objects DO NOT make us happier? Huh.
Improv is an experiential art form so I recommend just doing it and reflecting afterwords.
My favorite reflection prompts:
How are you feeling right now?
What were your biggest insights / takeaways?
What is one micro-action you will put into practice based on your insight? (commit to yourself!)
2026 is shaping up to be a year where we all need to focus on our well-being, as individuals, managers of teams, and heads of small organizations.
If team well-being is a challenge for you (i.e. stressed out, burnt out, disengaged employees). Let’s chat!
Thanks for reading FOLLOW THE FEAR! This post is public so feel free to share it.
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