Show after show
I think performing on stage is one of the most insane things to do on the planet.
Saying the same lines hundreds of times.
Light out the same story night after night.
The same lines, the same beats, the same emotional journey. It’s CRAZY.
For the person on stage doing it, it’s this strange meditation of sameness and adrenaline.
For the people watching it’s the first time they’re seeing it.
It’s crazy to me that those two experiences sit side by side to each other.
Actors have no other choice but to be utterly present and alive each and every night.
Even though it’s the same for them, they honour the newness for the audience this night. They show up every single night.
I think that’s gorgeous and I’m never not amazed sitting in an audience and seeing that play out after the lights go up.
The magic moments
It’s important to catch them…
The magic moments.
We spend so much time working, aspiring and perspiring toward outcomes. When the awesome moments happen it’s so easy to move on quickly.
I have a dated database in Notion called “Magic Moments”.
When a cool little thing happens, I put it in there- the date is already added.
It’s the best thing in the world to read back over these and be flooded by all the good:
-The stranger who smiled at me on the bus
-The unexpected sunset view from the hotel window
-That apple that was so great and crunchy.
They come and go so quickly you might miss them. Get in the habit of recording them, you won’t regret it.
Every go is it’s own go.
Ever fallen into the trap of thinking that the past equals the future?
That because you’ve failed at something before you’ll fail at it again?
I recently felt this first hand when I felt myself getting superstitious in the show. We’re on tour with Mrs Krishnan’s Party and we had a great matinee show the other day…
Somehow I got it in my head that because we had a really great afternoon show, the evening show wasn’t going to be as good. That we had somehow ‘had the good one’ already.
Boy, it was a sticky belief too, it was pulling me out of doing my job, which is just to play the situation and be in the action!
The reality is, every event has the possibility of being a universe unto itself.
The evening show is it’s own thing. There’s a whole new audience, we’re in a different universe.
Everything can be on it’s own.
Just because you did a great job last time, it doesn’t mean you can’t again.
Just because you failed on the first attempt doesn’t mean you will again.
Every go is it’s own go.
Remember that.
Good enough
It’s a difficult one, isn’t? On the one hand you want to put out your best work, always.
On the other hand, perfection is the enemy of execution.
When do you say something is “good enough” and when do aim for a higher standard?
What if “good enough” actually was the best standard? If perfection delays or destroys progress, it is really something to strive for?
“Good enough” is the best because it got made. It started the conversation. It got the show on the road.
There’d be no show without “good enough”.
Celebrate your “good enough”.
And it gives you plenty in the tank for the next one.
You, the best.
I love this idea of a ‘resourceful state’
It just means a way that you are, physically and mentally where you are able to access your inner resources.
It’s a sunny Saturday morning and you’re powering through your chores. There’s a smile on your dial and everything feels simple and figure-outable.
I’m obsessed with the ability to get into this mode whenever I want.
Turns out it’s as simple as remembering a time you were in that state, and re-creating your internal and external world to match.
How were you standing? What was your face doing? How were your eyes? Your breath? What kinds of things were you saying to yourself in your head? What were you focussing on?
It’s no surprise that these are the same tools actors use to change their biochemistry.
How do you want to be, do what do you need to do?
Pre-sleep list
My schedule has been quite different lately. Lot’s of travel and my day to day varies quite a lot. Sometimes I have the morning to myself, other times I have an engagement first thing.
One thing that has helped me is to mentally list the order and sequence of things I will do in the morning.
If your day looks the same every day, I’m trying to mimic that.
Wake up. Straight out for a walk. Journal. Breakfast. Voice warm up. Day begins.
It seems simple, but when I go to bed with a jumbled list of things I could do in any order, by morning ends up taking twice as long.
And worse still, I’ll add unnecessary things before the actual list (check phone…!)
If the order doesn’t matter, choose AN order and go with that.
And choose it before you sleep.
Don’t relinquish your control.
We don’t have control of everything… but we do have control of a lot.
We get to choose what we bring to an interaction or situation. Of course we can’t control what happens there, but we can choose our lens.
And that counts for a lot.
Who do you want to be at work today? How do you want the people you meet with today to feel? How much fun do you want to bring to your day today?
We can’t choose it all, but we can choose the stuff that matters.
Don’t relinquish your control.
Stay connected
I think the root cause of procrastination is a lack of connection to the end goal of what you’re trying to do.
Say, you just can’t get yourself to sit down and write. That just means you’re disconnected from all the good that comes into your life when you write the book; you’re a published author, people connect to your ideas, you knock something off your bucket list… all those things are true.
But in the moment, you aren’t thinking of these in a visceral way.
So a fun game I’m playing is merely reconnecting vividly to the end goal of any action I’m resistant to beginning.
Give it a go.
Treat yourself; treat ’em right.
What are the kinds of people you want in your life?
One strategy is to switch all the people out in some sort of mass ‘recast’.
Another option is to treat them the way you want them to be.
Do you want a best friend who is reliable, loving and attentive? Cast them in that role and let them live into that identity.
Want to be married to a queen? Treat her like one.
Want kids who are curious, kind and energetic?
You get it.
The line
I just waited in a three and a half hour airport line. The one mistake I saw people make was to fall into the trap of acting like you were in the longest line of your life (and trust me, it was the longest line of my life)
I saw people 20 minutes in who were huffing and puffing ready to explode… sure you can be there at hour three, but you’ve got to pace yourself!
The trick is to give yourself somewhere to go. You don’t start the angry scene already fuming, you make the character cheery when they first enter. They can then journey into their aggression!
Don’t start where you don’t want to end. Start where you want to be and see if you can stay there.