Discipline is the strongest form of self-love.
Delaying instant gratification for the sake of something bigger, for your dreams, is the best gift you can give yourself.
The choices you make and the actions you take, reveal the amount of your love.
The future you is depending on the present you. What’s it gonna be?…
“The advice I like to give anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in the brain, you are not going to do an awful lot of work…All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.” -Chuck Close
“When inspiration does arrive, it is invariably energizing. But it is not something to rely on. An artistic life cannot be built solely around waiting. Inspiration is out of our control and can prove hard to find. Effort is required and invitations are to be extended.” –The Creative Act by Rick Rubin
“The amateur tweets. The pro works.” –Turning Pro by Steven Pressfield
Amateurs rely on inspiration and the fickleness of feelings to get to work.
Professionals just get to work. Day in. Day out. It’s who they are. What they do.
Decide ahead of time what you’re gonna do and know why you’re doing it. Then take massive and continuous action.
Be A Pro.
“If it be now, ’tis not to come; if it be not to come, it will be now; if it be not now,
yet it will come. The readiness is all.” –Hamlet
“So much of life isn’t about intelligence or luck but putting yourself in a position for success. The cash-rich investor thrives in crashes. The well-rested athlete outperforms the exhausted star. The student who studies daily aces the pop quiz. The employee who leaves early gets to the meeting with the CEO on time while the other person sits in the unanticipated traffic. All seem lucky, but they’ve positioned themselves to succeed. Master your circumstances before they master you.” -Shane Parrish
“It is good to carry some powdered rouge in one’s sleeve. It may happen that when one is sobering up or waking from sleep, a samurai’s complexion may be poor. At such a time it is good to take out and apply some powdered rouge.” -excerpt from Hagakure: The Book Of The Samurai by Yamamoto Tsunetomo (translated by William Scott Wilson)
“Being unexpected adds to the weight of a disaster, and being a surprise has never failed to increase a person’s pain. For that reason, nothing should ever be unexpected by us. Our minds should be sent out in advance to all things and we shouldn’t just consider the normal course of things, but what could actually happen. For is there anything in life that Fortune won’t knock off its high horse if it pleases her?” -Seneca, Moral Letters
“The story of spontaneity can be misleading. We don’t see all the practice and preparation that goes into priming an artist for the spontaneous event to come through. Every work contains a lifetime of experience. Great artists often labor to make their work appear effortless. Sometimes they might spend years meticulously crafting and refining a composition to appear as if it was made in a day or in a moment.” –The Creative Act: A Way of Being by Rick Rubin
You can’t control when or whether you even get the gig.
You can control doing everything in your power so that you’re ready for the gig.
The readiness is all.
Chemistry (chemistry)
Chemistry (chemistry)
You and me, we’ve got (chemistry)
Chemistry
You and me, we’ve got (chemistry)
Baby you and me
Could this be that (chemistry)
Chemistry, baby you and me -song “Chemistry” by Arcade Fire
“I love the chemistry that can be created onstage between the actors and the audience. It’s molecular, even, the energies that can go back and forth. I started in theater, and when I first went into movies, I felt that my energy was going to blow out the camera.” -Glenn Close
For the director…
You can’t plan for chemistry. Nor you can force it or fake it.
But if you’re blessed to have chemistry in your production, do everything in your power to nurture it and allow for it to flourish.
For it’s the magical X factor that will make your production one for the ages.
“The kingdom of heaven is like a merchant searching for fine pearls. When he finds a pearl of great price, he goes and sells all that he has and buys it.” -Matthew 13:45
“For it is said that humans are never satisfied, that you give them one thing and they want something more. And this is said in disparagement, whereas it is one of the greatest talents the species has and one that has made it superior to animals that are satisfied with what they have.” –The Pearl, a novel by John Steinbeck
“There is perhaps nothing worse than reaching the top of the ladder and discovering that you’re on the wrong wall.” -Joseph Campbell
“You find out when you reach the top / you’re on the bottom.” -Bob Dylan, song Idiot Wind
Whether you go up the ladder or down it,
you position is shaky.
When you stand with your two feet on the ground,
you will always keep your balance. -“Tao Te Ching” by Lao Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)
One moment from an improv show (“The Armando Diaz Experience” at the Improv Olympic in Chicago) I saw over two decades ago that still haunts me…
The performer ended his opening monologue with these words:
“I got everything I thought I ever wanted and I’m still not happy.”
Silence.
You could hear a pin drop. You could feel the audience breathing with him through the sadness.
Then, the moment ended. The scenes and the comedy began…
What are you searching for?
What ladder are you climbing? Why are you even climbing it?
What’s your pearl of great price?
Knowing which one to pick is priceless.
P.S. – Pictured above is the Melo Melo Pearl. One of the rarest and most valuable pearls in the world.
For the actor…
Don’t show it.
Just mean it. With your whole heart, mind and soul.
Trust that when you do, we’ll see it.
More importantly, we’ll feel it. With our whole heart, mind and soul.
General William T. Sherman: “Well, Grant, we’ve had the devil’s own day, haven’t we?”
General Ulysses S. Grant: “Yes…Lick ’em tomorrow, though.” – Conversation between the two generals after the first day of the Battle of Shiloh during the American Civil War
All you lovers in the world (it’s a brand new day)
Stand up and be counted every boy and every girl (startin’ up a brand new day)
Stand up all you lovers in the world (it’s a brand new day) -song, “Brand New Day” by Sting
For the stage actor and the athlete…
You were great tonight.
So what?
You gotta do it all over again tomorrow night. For a brand new audience.
You were lousy tonight.
So what?
You get to do it all over again tomorrow night. For a brand new audience.
The waiting is the hardest part
Every day you get one more yard
You take it on faith, you take it to the heart
The waiting is the hardest part -Tom Petty, song “The Waiting”
“Silence is God’s first language.” -St. John of the Cross
Do you have the patience to wait
till your mud settles and the water is clear?
Can you remain unmoving
till the right action arises by itself?
The Master doesn’t seek fulfillment.
Not seeking, not expecting,
she is present, and can welcome all things. -“Tao Te Ching” by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)
Make friends with waiting and silence.
For if you can do so, these two friends will guide you. They will clarify and amplify your heart’s true desire. And lead you to the inner peace you so desperately seek.
What has our arrogance profited us?
And what good has our boasted wealth brought us?
All those things have vanished like a shadow,
and like a rumor that passes by;
like a ship that sails through the billowy water,
and when it has passed no trace can be found,
no track of its keel in the waves.
Wisdom is radiant and unfading,
and she is easily discerned by those who love her,
and is found by those who seek her.
She hastens to make herself known to those who desire her.
One who rises early to seek her will have no difficulty,
for she will be found sitting at the gate.
To fix one’s thought on her is perfect understanding. -“Book of Wisdom”
“You got a life? Live it! Live the motherfuckin life!” -Toni Morrison, Song of Solomon: A Novel
Just because you’re older and wiser now doesn’t mean you should renounce your ambition.
It just means you now know what it’s all about. How to properly channel that ambition. Which is into…
Doing the work.
Loving the process.
Striving for excellence solely for the sake of excellence.
Being generous.
Having the discipline and courage to make and share your art. So that others will benefit from your passion and your vulnerability and your willingness to step out on the ledge and risk.
So, please keep your ambition. It’s your fuel. Your energy to make your art. To make the kind of change the world needs.
Just check your ego at the door. (Wisdom and experience are what enable you to do this.)
There is a time for being ahead,
a time for being behind;
a time for being in motion,
a time for being at rest;
a time for being vigorous,
a time for being exhausted;
a time for being safe,
a time for being in danger. –Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)
My dad once told me a story about how he almost drowned when he was a young man. It involved having fun at a party and then afterwards, him (for some reason) going nightswimming alone in Jones Beach.
He ended up getting caught in a riptide. (A riptide is a strong ocean current that flows directly away from the shore. A swimmer caught in a riptide is pulled out into the open water. Nearly 100 people died in riptides last year in the U.S. alone.)
As he tried to swim in to shore, he realized he wasn’t making any progress. No matter how hard and fast he swam, he kept going further and further out until he could no longer see the shore. Exhausted and no doubt frightened, he somehow gathered his wits about him and just stopped swimming entirely. He let himself drift. Every once in a while, he took a few strokes and then stopped and drifted again. He noticed the current wasn’t as strong as he wasn’t being pushed as far out. He repeated the process over and over. Swim. Stop. Drift. Swim. Stop. Drift. Eventually, after an hour or so, the current died down completely and he made it to shore. He thanked his lucky stars and lived to tell me the story many years later.
I was always impressed by his ability to stay calm and pivot under these adverse circumstances. (As well as so many other things my dad accomplished in his life). That story has always stuck with me.
Turns out, I recently discovered there’s a name for this thinking and it can be applied to life itself. It’s called having a “riptide mentality” per Sahil Bloom and his always excellent Curiosity Chronicle. He writes below…
The recommended course of action when you’re caught in a riptide is to relax and let it take you out into the open water. Once the current dissipates, you swim parallel to the shore and then in. You conserve energy by not fighting the riptide, and then use your energy to return to shore once outside its grasp.
This is what I call the Riptide Mentality:
At certain times in your life, there are going to be subtle, hidden, external forces conspiring against you—pulling you further away from your desired destination.
In these moments, your instincts will tell you to fight back against those forces. You’ll breathe faster, push harder, and strain against them.
But these instincts may lead you astray:
You may be caught in a riptide—and in a riptide, the best course of action is the opposite of what your instincts tell you.
In these moments, when you feel the currents are too strong to resist, allow yourself the freedom to relax and let it take you.
Once it inevitably dissipates, you will have the energy and fortitude to safely navigate to your destination.
So the next time you feel those intense forces conspiring against you, and your instincts tell you to strain and fight back, consider the Riptide Mentality:
Perhaps the best course of action is to conserve energy now and deploy it more effectively later.
There’s a time to swim, a time to stop, and a time to drift. Knowing when can make all the difference in your endeavors and your overall life.
The Vs. Studio Blog