My favourite day
I went to the movies in the afternoon today AND went out to dinner.
two ingredients to make this a great day.
what are your ingredients?
GPS
This is a great idea from Ali Abdaal.
He suggests we think of goals in terms of ‘G.P.S’.
Goal
Process
System
It also provides a helpful metaphor for something of a GPS device to get us to our desired destination.
Ali says goals can be a unhelpful if they’re a little too lofty or ambiguous. The GPS frame allows us to break it down in the the parts and honour the processes required to get there. The idea being that processes are actionable and on a given day we can look to GPS and have certainty that the thing we do that day takes us toward our action.
GOAL: The outcome, what are we working toward? The example Ali gives is his current goal to be in the greatest shape of his life.
PROCESS: What will we do to get there? How have other people done this? What are your best ideas to get there? Ali’s example: lift heavy things often, eat the right food and move his body.
SYSTEM: This is how you implement this every day. What will you actually do consistently to get there? Ali’s main systems was to eat 160 grams of protein a day, have a gym session with a trainer and get 10 thousand steps. Each morning he asks in his journal how will I get 160 grams protein, when will I work out and when will I get the steps in?
What I love about the the system is it can be easily repeatable and if you select the right processes either though trial and error or modeling success, you don’t have to think about the goal all that much; it’ll just be a by-product of your excellent systems.
Hire a guitar
I’m in LA for a week taking a break from tour.
I wanted a guitar to play while I relax near palm trees and movie studios.
It never occurred to me that you can just rent a guitar. That seemed like kind of extravagant thing to do for some reason. It really isn’t, it cost me about 50 bucks.
I love these kinds of actions because they bust up unconscious limiting beliefs.
Just because it’s something I haven’t done it before doesn’t mean I can’t do it now.
What would be awesome to have in your life and how could it actually be a reality for you?
Start small
The brothers began their movie making dream by taking the films they made one cinema at a time up and down the east coast.
This ‘one dollar’ solution to distribution was a perfect place to start for them.
People liked watching their movies and they soon needed a place to make their pictures. A couple of warehouses, a aircraft hanger and a water tower later; Warner Brothers Studios was born.
The rest is history.
To get big, start small.
Deadline hack
Excited anticipation can make time stand still.
You’re SO excited for something next week that the days drag on.
Yet the opposite happens when we’re on a deadline; the hours and days zoom by as you frantically work to get everything done in time.
I recently discovered you can bend these laws of the universe and force he tow perceptions to collaborate for your benefit.
Looking forward to something in nine days from now?
Create a pressing external deadline for eight days from now.
Time will move fast and slow.
AI Image Prompt: Make a cartoon of a clock running in slow motion with cute little running shoes and a sweat band
Better story
There was a guy in the audience at the show today who was a tough nut to crack.
Well, he kind of looked like he hated us. He wasn’t smiling or laughing at any of the jokes- and worse still the slow dawning warmth that usually comes from genuinely looking into someone eyes was not happening.
Throughout the course of the show, I was having this whole internal dialogue about why he was like that. Cycling between self blame and blame on him.
The truth is there’s only one choice.
Either I decide he’s a big old meany who hates me and thinks everything I do is lame, over-acting and disingenuous bull (ouch)
OR
I choose a more generous story. Maybe he’s had a terrible day, after all we don’t know what pain people bring into the theatre.
Maybe he is really nervous the actors are going to make him look foolish in front of all these people. His apparent coldness could be his best attempt at keeping us away and keeping himself safe.
The truth is, there are so many possibilities as to why he is the way he is.
Some of the stories I tell myself about him make me mad
and some of them make me open more to this fellow human.
I know which is easier in the moment.
I also know which one allows me to do my best work.
I’ll never know what was up with that guy. The story is up to me, I guess.
Make believe
Tonight we got the best compliment I think we’ve ever had for the show.
It was (fittingly) from a child.
As we served the dahl in the post show of Mrs Krishnan’s Party here in Tucson, a mother and daughter came up to get food.
The mum said “She kept nudging me the entire show asking “is this real!? Is this real?!”
Perhaps I can retire from acting now.
Playing without a net
Every day I wake up and I know I’ll be making and posting a short film that day.
I don’t know what it’s going to be and that is completely terrifying.
There’s a slight internal pressure until I get started. Then there is a tiny spark of an idea and I start shooting.
I take a shot here and there, I mic up and experiment a with a character and some lines.
I simply take the next step, then the next and the next; gathering material, looking for things that light me up or make me laugh. Before I know it I’m in the editing phrase (the best part) and I can’t believe I’ve done it again. I made a thing that didn’t exist before.
Each morning, I’m afraid the spark won’t come. And sometimes it hasn’t. But I must take the first step forward anyway.
It’s been the most liberating and illuminating artistic endeavor of my life. When there is no other option but to deliver.
You deliver.
Frame the experience
I taught the junior year BFA Actors at the drama school at Arizona University today. They were fantastic.
I didn’t prepare as much as I usually would; I have a set of exercises I know work and the general structure remains the same.
Instead I decided to begin by asking the actors what they were having difficulty with, focussing on or curious about in their craft.
The result were the most articulate and clear frames I could have asked for. The collected brainstorm we had once we got around the circle was an abundant platform on which to begin the class.
They had framed the experience with what they needed, so we could see the excersies constantly through the lens most useful to the actor.
I’m curious and excited to keep exploring here. To trust the things I do know and then listen openly for the frames that emerge in the room.
Not a fluke
The last few days I have been astoundingly productive.
I’ve lived into all of my aspirational identities.
I’ve run my business, met with clients in other timezones, created products, caught up with friends across the world, eaten well and made a film every day. I’ve also written every day.
Pretty near perfect.
Looking back and counting all I had done, I caught myself thinking that it was just a lucky streak. That this isn’t ‘normal’.
I’m glad I caught the belief before I adopted it.
What if this is just a new normal. That life really can be all you want it to be.
To have that be true you first have to belief if.