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Change in scene

I’ve felt a little off kilter today. We relocated from our three week season in Louisville to now being in West Palm Beach Florida.

It was a massive day of travel- I managed to do some editing on the plane which I think made me a bit travel sick.

I struggled to find time for my film habit AND I nearly forgot to write this. I was reflecting and I think it’s because this is the first day in three weeks that looked radically different to the rest.

I didn’t wake, eat, exercise or work at any of the normal times (I mean my days haven’t been that regimented; they aren’t the same but they do rhyme)

So I have tended to find the time to complete my daily tasks at more or less the same time each day.

I realised this evening as I tucked into a new bed, I didn’t have any of the normal environmental cues to remind me it was time to perform a habit task.

Each day or night I’d see the same room, in the same set up and have a similar sequence of events that led me to get there and the next thing to happen would be to write here.

I’m now in a new environment where only my tooth brush and skin care routine managed to remind me of what I had been doing.

I’m curious about how we can bring habits with us and build movable cues into our on the road lifestyle. I don’t forget to brush my teeth but I did nearly forget to make my film. How interesting.

Fan the flame

As I was planning out my day today, I got a sudden urge to start one of the tasks immediately.

For me this is a no no, because I like to have clear tasks for the day before I begin. But in this case I indulged the instinct.

The task I began was making todays film, in my daily film making habit.

As I was blocking out the time of day I would commit to the task, a little piece of music popped into my head that I wanted to put in the film.

I stood up, got my guitar and set up garage band to record the simple little tune in my head.

I ended up continuing on to complete the film making task then and there.

Maybe it’s because it was a creative task that I allowed it to take my attention immediately. After all, when inspiration knocks, you answer the door.

After this experience I’m quite alive to the little whispers of inspiration in the form of images, lines, ideas, feelings or musical hankerings.

I’m a fan of organising your day and tasks to ensure you get them done. But there is also the magic of the unexpected muse, throwing away the rules for a second and following the spark.

Fan the flame, I reckon.

When its good, let it be good

I’ve cut coffee out of my diet and I’ve been doing pretty well with it.

Yesterday was the closest I’ve come to breaking my little coffee fast; I was SO tired and was doing all kinds of talking and reasoning with myself as to why I needed it and it would be a great treat and a needed pick me up ahead of the show.

I was really proud that I didn’t have a cup of coffee. Because I remained in line with my initial decision.

TODAY was interesting though, because my energy was actually great. I felt very calm and centered in my body and there goes my wonderful brain telling me that it would be a good chance to celebrate how great I’m feeling and go and get a cup of coffee.

It’s funny, isn’t it, how we’ll reason with ourselves.

Now this isn’t me knocking coffee by the way, it’s more about the fact that I’d made the choice not to and my brain was coming up with reasons to break this. That’s whats important to notice.

Today I resisted again- which I was really proud of. And I think today was actually more dangerous than yesterday. Because today my body was in the exact state I’m trying to get to without stimulants like coffee or sugar. And it was that exact state that brought about the thought “Oh let’s have a little coffee treat” BUT that would have linked the very state I’m after with the thing I’m trying to avoid!

Anyway- my little learning is this: If things feel good, leave them as they are.

You don’t need to coffee.

Divine limbo

I was in the middle of the show tonight in one of the parts where I get a few moments off stage while my co-star Kal is with the audience.

It’s a strange space to be in; I don’t have my phone, there is no other human near me there in the darkness. I have only about 5 minutes back there.

Short enough for it to just be a snatched moment- but long enough to remember I’m a human living a life and doing this strange thing called acting.

This evening I could feel my brain start to think of other things in my life: What happened earlier in the day, plans for tomorrow or further in the future.

But none of it existed.

For those few minutes I’m neither in the show or out of the show. I’m in a kind of divine limbo where I can be no where else but right there.

It’s a glorious nightly meditation I’m really enjoying at the moment.

Stay the course

…sometimes!

Some things require us to try the same thing a little longer than we think we need to. This is to account for lag time. We need to foster persistence and keep doing the thing that might take us to victory.

And sometimes we have to change our approach because what we’re trying isn’t working.

The art is having the acuity to know when to hold the line and when to change tac.

Watch and listen closely for the tiny shifts. These will help you know whether to stay the course or try something else.

Get to one thousand

Steven Bartlett (Diary of a CEO) had a great piece of advice for his girlfriend who wanted to post content for her business.

She’d been putting it of for months and it was the pursuit of perfection that was stopping her. He suggested she change her focus from making the perfect first post to trying to get to one thousand posts.

To come at the goal with brute force.

I love this approach because you’d have to learn something doing anything one thousand times. Progress is guaranteed.

Even a monkey would improve doing something one thousand times!

In Praise of full screen

I’ve recently been enjoying things in full screen on my laptop.

I discovered it was a bit of a habit if I was watching an interview or working on a text document- I’d have the window in partial view, meaning I could still see all the other things on the screen.

I found it was distracting me and diluting my experience of what ever it was I was doing. Almost as though I was half committing to what I was doing. Clicking full screen has become a kind of full attentiveness to what I’m doing.

Editing a video? Full screen

Watching a podcast video? Full screen

Writing a blog post? Full screen

Looking through pictures. Full. Screen.

If you’re doing something- do it. You don’t need the other tabs or distractions to be a brigade of colorful badges on the outskirts. Go all in.

Go full screen

Playing with no net

I heard a great analogy from the audiobook of Seth Godin’s The Practice.

He said the secret to winning on a game show like Jeopardy is to hit the buzzer before you know the answer. As the host is finishing the question, you hit the buzzer and in the time it takes him to come to you and ask for an answer, that’s when you work it out.

Seth says you don’t need to know the answer to hit the buzzer, you just need to know that you’re the kind of person with the kind of knowledge and tools to work it out.

Sure, you could be wrong, but you gave it your best shot.

I’ve felt this in my daily filming challenge. There will come a point in the morning where I remember I’ll be making something today. I have no idea what it will be, but I know I’ll make something. By committing to the daily task- I’ve hit the buzzer.

So I’m just trusting that I have the skills, knowledge and curiosity to figure it out. It might not be the best thing, but I’ll sure as heck try my best.

I’d much rather hit the buzzer and GIVE IT A GO than miss my chance waiting for certainty.

A helpful reframe I’ve felt is the difference between seeing the daily task as:

“Oh no, I don’t know what to make”

to:

“Oh! I wonder what I’ll make today”

There’s no option of not showing up and doing my job today- I hit the buzzer when I decided to do this daily.

I’ve got no safety net but I am trying my best. And best of all, I get to try again tomorrow.

(and the next day)