“Don’t have a plan.  Plans are for wusses…You are obviously good planners, or you wouldn’t be here. Stop it! Stop it now!”

Jane Lynch issued a call to stop planning, fiercely embrace the world, and fight to make it better in her commencement address to the Smith College class of 2012 today.

In a speech highlighting women and weaving together her own college graduation, her time at The Second City (“the improvisational breeding ground where Tina Fey, Amy Poehler, Rachel Dratch and Nia Vardolos, along with some guys you might recognize, got their start”), thoughts on being in a relationship, on being a parent, and her knowledge of Smith women (her wife, Lara Embry, is a Smith alumna), Lynch advocated a life philosophy of “YES AND.”  She urged the graduates to use this idea of embracing opportunities—to only engage the power of “NO WAY” out of good judgement, rather than out of fear.

Check out the video to hear Lynch talk about how she discovered the idea of “YES AND” through her introduction to improv at The Second City and about getting caught with her pants down.