Patricia Ryan Madson, author of IMPROV WISDOM: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up reminds us of the four rules that guide us when we step up to improvise. These are useful not only on stage, but in the office, at the family dinner table, and as we negotiate life without a script.

Everything begins with attention. What we notice and observe becomes our world. The improviser substitutes attention for planning and ruminating. What is happening now is the canvas as well as the substance for what comes next.

Once we attend to what is happening right now our job is to open ourselves to it, to embrace it. We need to say YES to what is happening in order to work with it. This step teaches us to set aside preferences in favor of using what is at hand. Further, the improviser says YES - AND. We must add to the story.

Shift your mind to notice what is right about the situation, what is useful. Pay special attention to what you are receiving. Can you find the gift?

The improviser acts decisively, even with limited data. Action creates new understanding and a revised vantage point. We act ourselves into new ways of thinking, rather than trying to think ourselves into new ways of acting.

When we improvise we discover the bounty of the universe. We already have what we need once we've grown the eyesight to see and the will to act. There is a profound goodness inside the common life we live.

For more, read the book IMPROV WISDOM: Don't Prepare, Just Show Up, by Patricia Ryan Madson, Bell Tower Books, 2005. Also available as an Ebook and as an Audiobook at all online booksellers