Your BEST Stuff
I’m making a movie every day and I’ve been finding it a bit difficult the last few days. I realised one of the internal resistances was this belief that I’ve got to ‘save’ my best ideas for when I have a bigger audience.
This also leads me to believe that my good ideas are finite. I’m stoked I caught this belief because I can already feel the empowering alternative…
If I put my BEST stuff out right now and no one sees it, that is AWESOME.
Why?
Because I know that I have an infinity more of ideas to share. By virtue of me consuming artists I love, getting regularly OBSESSED, living more life, gathering experiences, being curious and learning new things; I have a future of endless creations.
I also know that what I think is my ‘best’ now, I will look back on in a few years and marvel at how far I’ve come.
That’s the best bit.
If I didn’t share my best stuff- and saved it till later, I’d never have improved to that inevitable ‘better’ position, higher skill level from which to look back.
SO
That means if I DON’T share my best stuff right now, I’m actually wasting precious improving time.
So I MUST share my best work and I must do it now- because I’m not into wasting time.
Time to process
If I’m on a break from work either cooking some food or popping out for a walk, I’ll naturally put my air pods on to listen to music or a podcast.
The idea is that I can squeeze learning in between work or other tasks.
I learned recently that the brain actually needs space to be idle to put things together.
It’s in those moments of being a bit bored:
Waiting for the jug to boil
Strolling around the block
Doing some stretches
that the brain really gets to work. I’m trying not to stack things end to end that occupy my conscious brain. I find, without fail, that given the space the brain comes up with new distinctions and connections that weren’t there before.
Give your brain time to dream, connect and solve problems.
How hard to press the pencil
You learn quite a bit on accident when you do something over and over again. I’ve been making a movie every day this year which also means I’ve been acting a lot of those days as well.
I think I have a tendency as an actor to have an ‘on’ button and an ‘off’ button of sorts. Kind of like a thick black line I can draw really well when I decide: ‘now I’m acting’.
Being in the practice of acting almost every and editing my own performances into films, I’ve been able to stretch this ability.
In the edit, I’m finding moments I didn’t think I was ‘acting’ but are very character revealing. Little moments that I end up using in the end film that teach me to experiment with scales of subtlety.
I’m learning I can make a thick black line sometimes and others just a gentle grey scribble. Pressing the pencil hard is easy to track because you can definitely feel the line being created (you can feel the acting happening).
A subtle look or a small inhale of dread on the other hand are harder to nail down. Mainly because you can’t nail them down, they are organic modalities that arrive when you loosen your grin on the pencil.
Logging failures
They say the person who has the most success has also clocked up the most failures.
All the creations Disney put out into the world before the one that put them on the map.
When I think about this I have the strong temptation to phone in all the ‘practice’ reps.
The belief that ‘this one won’t hit the big time, so I can just do a mock rep’.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t work that way. You have to try your best each and every time. Only then will the culmination effect take place.
Try your best each time and keep doing that over and over.
Signals
They say listen to your body. If it’s craving sleep, you should listen and have a sleep in.
Though it can be tricky to figure out what signals are true and what aren’t.
For instance, I crave sugar and I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean I should eat a whole cake. I suppose it could mean I’m hungry and the fact that sugar is the craving could mean I’m very hungry.
The skill then is to read the signals in ways that empower you.
The Game Frame
Kids love games. The mere mention of a game can be enough to get them excited and ready to engage. If there’s a piece of learning I want to deliver in class I’ll often frame it as a game to prime the kids for the type of engagement I’d like from them. It’s the difference between:
“Let’s learn five new words”
and
“Who’s ready for a game?!”
Each can lead to the same lesson content, but one will activate a different type of engagement from the kids.
When in doubt frame it as a game.
Outcomes are magic
I’m learning to speak and think in outcomes.
When you speak in outcomes, results become very binary and your actions become unlimited.
You simply need to try many things until you get the outcome (or indeed, an outcome)
The main thing I’m combatting when I think in outcomes is actually just remaining on task.
Outcomes are the language of possibility. Start there and go anywhere.
Ooh, Barracuda
Tony Robbins tells a very inspiring story of a day he hit a threshold. He was living in his tiny apartment in Venice Beach, LA. He was unhealthy in all areas of his life and he knew he needed a change.
He went outside, put his head phones in and ran as hard as he could along the beach. He even remembers what song he was listening to as he ran with everything he had:
At the end of his run, dripping in sweat he pulled out a piece of paper and began writing furiously what he demanded from his life. A new set of standards and a compelling set of goals.
I was in Venice beach the other day and as a sort of pilgrimage I ran along the beach listening to that song. Then poured my excitement and energy in to a tiny piece of paper. The scribbled rectangle is a tiny work of art that outlines my dream life and now it lives happily in my wallet.
It was an awesome experience.
Start with the big one (eat your veggies)
I’m quite good at avoiding high value tasks; they’re usually the scariest or the least desirable.
Recently I’ve been experimenting with doing those tasks at the start of my work day.
Make the phone call you don’t want to make but will move the needle in a big way.
Log the three hours necessary on the long term project.
Do the taxing brain work before the ‘fun’ part.
Prolific is Generous
Don’t you just love being obsessed with someones work?
I was listening to my brother’s music this morning and I was completely inspired by the sheer number of things he has available for us to listen to.
I love the work of Derren Brown, he’s been creating tv shows, specials and live theatre for nearly 30 years.
Fred Armisen is another person who’s work I completely adore.
Michael Jackson’s work completely inspires me. An endless world of embodied craft and spirit combined to move us.
All of these people have a wonderland of creations we can dive into. Hours and hours of work and unconscious competence has gone into creating their body of work.
A body of work that is uniquely the voice of the person it comes from. They made it for the people who understand and relish their work. That sense of “hey, this is just for you.“
The fact that I can binge on their art is the most inspiring and exciting feeling. At any moment I can immerse myself into everything they create.
Often as creatives we get caught up in making something perfect or (worse) trying to make something everyone will like.
Never mind that.
Make something for your people. The people who want what you got. Who understand the artistic and human questions your work is posing. Who get excited by what you’re excited by.
Make it for them over and over again. And more and better and more.
Let there be a natural arc to your work. Don’t try and make an arc, let it emerge.
Be unsure and share it anyway.
Have an earnest question you’re hunting the answer for.
Try your best.
Get specific.
Excert your craft.
Reference your heroes.
Draw on thousands of other artists you love.
Be generous and make a lot.
Your people are hungry, be a good host and feed them.
AI Image Prompt: make a picture of a table in the garden of eden overflowing with plant based food, with music books and art and delicious fruit and vegetables. This image embodies abundance