Why “Getting It Right” Is Holding Your Class Back
You’ve just rehearsed your big presentation in front of your boss.
Hours of prep went into it.
You were nervous but you did your best.
And you know what? You think you did pretty good.
(You even improvised a great little joke.)
Your boss pulls you aside…
…and proceeds to give you pages and pages of specific notes.
Improvements. Words to change. Things to make clearer. When to pause.
You know the notes are there to help you…
but you can’t help but feel a little overwhelmed.
I had this exact experience after a final rehearsal for a theatre show.
We did a full run.
Then our director sat us down.
And we all had detailed notes to take into opening night.
I’m a perfectionist.
I take pride in my work as an actor.
So I scribbled every note down.
Trying to capture each valuable takeaway.
But with each passing bullet point…
I felt less and less able to actually make any of these changes.
By the end, I was holding it together.
Telling myself I’d re-read everything later that night.
Then again in the morning.
All while fighting the panic of trying to integrate this into a performance…
in front of hundreds of people the next night.
Our director ended the session with a smile.
He knew it was a lot.
We all knew it was to make the show better.
Then he said something that completely removed the weight sitting on my chest:
“Look guys, I don’t expect you to get all these right tomorrow night — or ever.
And as you’re performing you’ll notice you’ve missed some bits and nailed others… that’s okay.
All these notes are in service of one thing: finding the life.
All we’re asking is… is it alive?”
Is it alive.
That was it.
The notes and adjustments were only ever there to find the life.
There are hundreds of details and hours of work that go into anything we do.
When I’m in the classroom, this is true.
When I’m acting on stage, this is true.
But it’s all in service of just one thing: life.
We’re just bringing the thing to life.
We want the people we’re working with to feel something.
To connect to it.
That’s it.
I love pouring energy and passion into the details.
But there comes a point where you have to let it go…
and come back to one question:
Is it alive?
Appreciation on tap
I just did the architecture boat tour in downtown Chicago.
Before the tour I looked around at the buildings and thought they were neat, impressive even.
But after the tour my relationship to the buildings was transformed.
This is the magic of education I think. Our tour guide had injected life and information to the buildings. We learned about the people who designed and built them, the context of the creations. We felt the tour guide’s personal connection to the buildings.
Without the tour we could walk right past the building that was designed to look like a giant wine bottle and never know it was designed as an architectural middle finger to the prohibition laws at the time of construction.
What a tragedy to simply not know because of a lack of being educated…
Teaching is not just about dispensing facts, it’s bringing them to life so we have a relationship to them.
How good.
Forgetting what you know
It amazes me how we can know something yet still not use it.
One of the simplest hacks for feeling great and getting the best out of ourselves is how we use our body.
I KNOW this.
If I am hunched over with a droopy face and dead eyes- I feel down.
If I’m upright, expressive in the face with a fire in my eyes- you know how I’m going to feel.
Yet I forget this on a weekly basis. I find myself feeling unproductive and lethargic and you bet my body matches that.
I also think this is okay.
Learning is only useful when you use it.
Every time you forget to use what you know theres an oppurtunity to begin again, and to put into action what you know.
Don’t lament that you forgot to do what you know.
Celebrate because you remembered that you forgot!
Set the clock
When I’m feeling REALLY unproductive here’s what I do.
Task. Time Limit. Set the clock.
I name the exact task I want to get done and how long I give myself to do it.
This cures my pattern of unproductive work. I want to get a lot done, so I tend to switch between tasks in an attempt to feel like I am getting lots done…
Yeah, that doesn’t work.
The above protocol forces my hand.
Task: Edit the first minute to this week’s video. Time: 35minutes. Start the timer.
There’s no mistaking what I need to do and how long I will take.
Task. Time Limit. Set the clock.
The splendid torch
| “This is the true joy in life, the being used for a purpose recognized by yourself as a mighty one; the being a force of nature instead of a feverish, selfish little clod of ailments and grievances complaining that the world will not devote itself to making you happy. I am of the opinion that my life belongs to the whole community, and as long as I live it is my privilege to do for it whatever I can. I want to be thoroughly used up when I die, for the harder I work the more I live. I rejoice in life for its own sake. Life is no “brief candle” for me. It is a sort of splendid torch which I have got hold of for the moment, and I want to make it burn as brightly as possible before handing it on to future generations.” |
| -George Bernard Shaw |
Brushing your teeth
How do you follow through on what you set out to do?
I love those moments of inspiration. When something is suddenly clear, you know exactly what you want and what it’ll be like when you get there.
The tricky part is how to keep that alive.
And the answer has to lie in a system. I wish I could, but I can’t reply on inspiration every day- it requires too much thinking. We need to figure out how to translate that to the systematic actions that take place daily without our constant upkeep.
I don’t visualise the perfect healthy smile every day, yet I do brush my teeth twice a day.
It’s not because I’m a powerful productivity god, I just have a simple action I do each day (and you probably do too).
So the question isn’t how do we keep motivated.
It’s how to we harness that initial momentum, wisely pick the ‘tooth brushing’ equivalent action and merely do that daily.
Our capacity will grow over time and we inch closer without the constant mental load.
Magic and mechanics
There’s the magic and then there’s mechanics.
The magic is what we’re always trying to create. The thing that drew us in in the first place.
You want that ‘wow’ moment when the curtain comes up on the show you’re writing.
You want the flow of an electric classroom where students are fizzing and learning is bouncing in all directions.
You want that feeling of presence in the scene where the audience forgets they’re watching two actors.
This is the magic.
Then there’s the mechanics. There’s the hours of drafting, re-drafting and editing the play. There’s learning the editing software. There’s drilling the acting technique. It’s boring. Its laborious. It’s unforgiving.
But it’s necessary. You can’t have one without the other.
The trick, I think, is to keep the magic alive while you’re in the trenches.
Keep the vision alive of the curtain coming up when you’re reworking a scene for the 37th time.
If we can do that, we’ll get through the mechanics and one day (soon) you’ll get to pop the champagne.
Fight scarcity
We always have to fight scarcity.
Humans are survival machines- we always need to make sure there is enough. And to do that we first have to see where there isn’t enough:
Not enough time, not enough resources, not enough sunlight.
What would happen instead if we just decided to act as if there was plenty?
That there is plenty of time to get everything done, there are plenty of opportunities and that there is more than enough for everyone.
Well yes, it might mean you miss out…
But you know you probably won’t.
When you treat what you have like it’s abundant, it feels abundant to you.
And what you perceive is reality.
And what you give is what you get.
More is more. Act accordingly.
Good enough
Good enough is a potent propellent.
When shipping something is more important that getting it perfect, good enough gets you in the game.
Good enough gives you time later to revisit. Good enough gets you iterative.
Good enough doesn’t mean you don’t try.
But you also don’t let perfection paralyse you.
Good enough is generous because it moves everyone closer to the value you’re here to give.
If it’s good enough it might be time to ship it.
Acting is life
Acting on stage is like the ultimate life teacher.
For instance, one of the best things about performing to a small audience is it teaches you to never give up.
It also teaches you that sometimes trying harder doesn’t get results.
But the best lesson is probably that listening harder and with more accuracy is often the answer.