Perfect Plans Go Awry
We try so hard to make things perfect. Don’t we? Yet, how often do they go way differently than we expected? Um, so often.
This past weekend my fellow performers and I put on a holiday show for our city’s tree lighting festival. It was such an honor to be asked to do this and I was very excited about the opportunity. I worked really hard putting together a Christmas program in a short amount of time. We practiced, planned and had the cutest set list. Plus, we incorporated well timed costume changes and comedic bits! We had a seamless rehearsal the night before and felt ready.
However, during the actual performance everything went wrong…like everything. 😅
From speaker feedback, to not enough mics, to every song being cut short, to the stage being tiny…it was a little bit of a technical nightmare. Amidst our internal panic, we persevered and rolled with each punch. So much adlibing, so much problem solving, so much ‘not our fault but had to fix’ kind of shenanigans…all while putting on a LIVE performance.
Do you know what, though?
We still sparkled and we still shined. The audience stayed engaged. In fact, the audience grew bigger as we kept performing. They laughed with our jokes, enjoyed our banter and sang to our songs. We brought holiday cheer like the pros we are!
We even helped Grinch do the Cupid Shuffle!
It reminded me that you literally can’t control anything, even if you make the PERFECT plan. You can do your best to ensure that you are set up for success, but you can’t control others. You can prepare, but so much of life is out of our control. You CAN however control what you do, how to think about it and your attitude. You also can decide to stop with each obstacle you face - or keep dancing to the music that is playing. 💃🏻
It makes what could feel pretty disappointing, 🌟 a little brighter. Especially when you realize - you still have a choice! I’m proud of my friends and I. We decided to keep shining even though nothing went as planned. What a good little lesson for my creative perfectionism.
Of course I’m bummed that it didn’t go the way I’d hoped. To be completely honest, I thought about it all night long. What could I have done differently? How I should have made the sound person double check? How I wished I would have had our own equipment, or someone else helping us. It was a lot on me, as the leader, to figure it out in real time and I felt bad that my talented friends had to endure such a sound catastrophe. Lots of lessons learned in this one for sure, and I’ll be mindful for future collaborations and productions.
In the end, I still felt joy while performing. Amidst the craziness of our little debacle, I saw people smiling, kids dancing, enjoying our energy and saw my friends be all stars! And, I always enjoy the challenge of a good ad lib 😂 (I may have missed my calling as an MC).
It was about bringing people together for the holidays, and what could be a better picture of that - than a perfect plan going haywire. lol.
Perhaps as the holidays approach, it’s a good thing to remember?
We’ll plan for parties and gifts, reactions and events…but no matter what life might throw you, and boy it’ll throw you, don’t let unmet expectations keep you from singing along. You can still enjoy the imperfect mayhem that life creates because its constantly creating mayhem. Once you shake off the disappointment though, it’s worth it to keep going. There’s always joy in there somewhere. And as a good friend of mine says, “at least its a great story!”
Just keep dancing. That’s my motto.
After all, it is a live show.
XO,
Jenna
