When circus elephants are young, they're tied to a stake with a strong chain - a practice used to keep them from wandering away from the circus grounds.

Eventually, they stop trying.

Despite growing into four-ton creatures strong enough to uproot trees, as adults - they stay restricted by a simple rope, trapped not by real chains but by memory.

Oddly enough, this entire piece started with a simple friend request from a local improv teacher.

In that moment, my mind did what dyslexic minds do best - it connected seemingly unrelated dots: improv breaking barriers → the psychological concept of learned helplessness → circus elephants and their ropes.

Three separate threads weaving into one insight about breaking free from self-imposed limitations.

At the start of 2023, knowing how improv helps break through self-imposed barriers, I finally signed up for a beginner's class. Sure, I procrastinated for a few weeks - but something told me it was time to get out of my own way.

99.9% of my body said, “yo, this is a terrible idea”.

The first class was both terrifying and exhilarating.

You Can’t Rehearse for Improv

After stretches, introductions, and vocal warm-ups - it was on.

No script. No rehearsal. No net.

Just you, the stage, and whatever scene was thrown your way.

Either solo or with a partner.

That pit in my stomach - I felt it every single time.

Am I going to have to dance like a chicken? Will I freeze up?

As these thoughts raced through my mind, I kept it movin’ and counted down so I couldn’t turn back: 5,4,3,2,1 - GO! 

I Like it Here

Over the next year and a half, twice a month for three hours, I'd step into that space of uncertainty with 8 to 12 others.

We performed for each other. Art for art’s sake.

More often than I could’ve ever imagined, I knocked it out of the park and was even asked to join the advanced class.

I tapped into emotions I never knew I could summon on cue.

Other times? Well, let's just say I was grateful for the 'no judgment’ rule...

You know what’s interesting though?

Is that I never once regretted stepping up, even after a weak performance. 

Those just made me want to go back and ‘prove them wrong’.

There's something powerful about making a decision to find out what lies beyond the rope of our own expectations.

Full Pull

Like that elephant, we learned early what we couldn't do. Those limitations have become our rope...

Fighting through personal mental warfare to get to a place where you're able to dispute the 'I'm not good enough’ labels is a full pull.

It takes sustained effort over many years to give yourself permission to say it out loud and say it proud: “I deserve this thing I'm going after and I've earned it” + “damn right, I’m somebody”. 

Unfortunately, despite ambition and achievements, many dyslexics can't turn this corner.

Even with evidence they're the real deal, they continue to wrestle with hidden obstacles that hold them back from reaching their next level.

Rope-Spotting 

Want to understand these hidden patterns better?

I've created a free resource that helps unmask how dyslexia shapes your thoughts, emotions, and self-perception in the workplace.

Know Your Dyslexia (guidebook + podcast episode) breaks it down from both the head and the heart perspectives.

It's a quick read or listen - mostly bullet points - but it might just help you spot your own ropes.

Click Download Me below to get it/ it’s free!

The Elephant Effect

Les Brown says, you can choose to live in your history or live in your imagination.

As dyslexics, that history often contains negative experiences or trauma that are hard to get past.

These play back in your head like a movie every time you think about doing something new.

Or, you can choose to live in your imagination - the space where you’re free to dream about alternate versions of you.

Ones where you focus on personal evolution, making small shifts every day while in search of something that might bring peace, wonder or fulfillment.

This isn't about improv.

It's about recognizing those ropes for what they are - learned limitations waiting to be challenged.

Every time we say yes to something that makes our stomach twist, we create new evidence against our old stories.

Keep Shifting

Class at that location has unfortunately been cancelled, and the alternative isn't as convenient.

But as I write these words, I can feel my head and body tingling.

It's the sign that I need to get my ass back into the improv studio, even if it's farther that I want to travel.

Because - well, that's what Re.invention looks like - not one dramatic transformation, but a series of small choices to push past our own ropes.

What's your next small shift gonna be?