In improv there’s a concept of looking for the shiny thing in a scene. The goal is often to establish a grounded reality with relationships between the characters and then, in the flow of the scene, see if you can identify something that catches your attention. This could be about how your scene partner sees the world, or some feature of the world that you’ve created which is a little bit off in an interesting way.

The goal is to keep your eyes open for the hint of an interesting surprise so that when it comes up you can jump on it fully.

This applies to the real world too. It’s so easy to go through life on autopilot, but as an experiment try paying attention to the shiny things that pop up in your day. This could be a part of your job that you love and want to double down on, or a snippet of a conversation that makes you want to spend more time on a friendship. Whatever it is, shiny things are the spice of life and should be actively chased.