Acting is cool because it’s simultaneously about doing something and about listening.
But it’s a great balancing act.
When it doubt, though, the answer is to listen more.
With most things, really.
I remember at drama school, our teacher encouraged us to stop clapping, or wooting, or whooping, when our classmates did amazing work.
He was encouraging us to normalize the outstanding. Because if we’re amazed every time someone does incredible work, that work becomes something out of reach, something separate from us. It’s only when the outstanding becomes normal that we can actually build on it and create something even more extraordinary.
It’s important to celebrate our wins. But we mustn’t colour that celebration with astonishment.
My friend Conor Bowden made an entire film across the span of four years on his iPhone.
It’s finally finished and it’s about to be in the NZ International Film Festival.
I asked him what the secret to getting this kind of thing started.
He said step 1 is start before your ready.
Step 2 is ask for help from people you trust.
Both of these things are totally within our grasp- the thing in the way is probabaly fear.
What is the thing you most want to do in the world and how can you use Conor’s two steps to get there now?
The things that happen to us are meaningless.
It’s only once we put words to it that we create a meaning.
“That destroyed me when he said that”
Vs.
“I was intrigued by how he came to that when he said that”
This isn’t just optimism or a good spin on things.
Your words have the power to create or destroy.
To lift you up or make you feel helpless.
Don’t fall into the trap of thinking your words describe your reality.
Realise that you create your reality with your words.
We all know what we need to do to get what we want, more or less.
The trouble isn’t the recipe, it’s the implimentation.
Our focus then shouldn’t be on finding more recipes, but how to get ourselves to use that ones we have.
The trick is how you think about the thing you need to do.
You want to get fit, you know you need to get more daily steps in, but when you think about walking you think about dying trying to get up a steep hill.
If you can take the thing you want to do and think about it in a way that makes you excited to do it, that’s when life starts getting interesting.
In the pursuit of something you want to do or make happen, there are two options that might run through your mind:
I don’t know about you, but my brain LOVES to picture option 2. But just like when you buy a new shirt and suddenly see it everywhere, you tend to get what you focus on.
Let’s spend no energy on option 2.
Let’s spend it all on option 1, shall we?
Sometimes we need a giant change…
And sometimes we need a little tweak.
(More often that not it’s the little tweak)
Before the giant change…
Make a few little tweaks.
And then some more little tweaks.
You’ll probably be fine with just those.
And you’ll probably experience giant change
From the little tweaks.
Actors choose verbs to play in scenes.
They might ‘press’ another character. Or they might ‘interrogate’ them.
It occurs to me that we unwittingly have verbs in life too. The words we choose dictate how we show up in the world- just like an actor in a scene. Actors are very intentional about it, but in normal life we aren’t.
Are you ‘getting through’ the day or ‘dancing through’ it?
Are you going to the office to ‘slog it out’ or are you going to ‘play’?
There’s power in this kind of intention. Don’t leave it to the actors; make your life a masterpiece of a play, written daily by you.
Do you fall into this trap too?
I love learning new things.
But sometimes I feel like I have an insatiable appetite for new information. The problem with that is things can remain surface level.
I’m recently enjoying revisiting things. The book you read 6 years ago is kind of a different book when you, as you are now, read it again.
A simple foundational exercise has oceans more to be learned when we come back to it again years after the first time.
More is not always more. More with the same thing, on the other hand. Well yes, that is probably more.
The thing doesn’t change. But you do, so the thing is different too.
What is a Monday Move?
A Monday Move is how your Saturday morning dreaming is put into action.
You’re out to coffee with your friend on a Saturday and you are both dreaming of that big amazing goal. It’s easy to picture it, the details fill themselves in and you have a glistening masterpiece in your head.
The trick is turning that vision into a Monday Move.
What do you do on Monday?
Why “Monday”? Well Monday has strong “back to work” connotations in the culture. It implies getting to reality.
Why “moves”? Well like a chess move, a really good move isn’t random. It’s calculated. It’s a step toward. It’s also just a move. Not a whole dance.
Monday Moves are there to remind us to to bring the glistening dream to the reality of Monday and do something about it.
What’s your Monday Move?
