Strive only for love and excellence and generosity.
Release the need for institutional validation or commercial success. (Most often, it’s not correlated with talent or skill anyway.)
If you do this, then you can rest assured in the knowledge that regardless of “industry trends” or “technological changes” or any other kind of shifts, your art will always be in style.
Speaking of good and bad thoughts and the power to choose our actions…
The Trappist Monk Thomas Keating teaches this beautiful contemplative practice:
Imagine yourself sitting on the bank of a river. Observe each of your thoughts coming along as if they’re saying, “Think me, think me.” Watch your feelings come by saying, “Feel me, feel me.” Acknowledge that you’re having the feeling; acknowledge that you’re having the thought. Don’t hate it, don’t judge it, don’t critique it, don’t, in any way, move against it. Simply name it: “resentment toward so and so,” “a thought about such and such.” Admit that you’re having it, then place it on a boat and let it go down the river. The river is your stream of consciousness.
The writer, teacher and modern mystic Cynthia Bourgeault, offers this wonderful reflection on Keating’s river exercise…
No matter what path of meditation you practice, I think his basic picture here holds true. What he imagines is the river of consciousness – remember this? – and it’s flowing on downstream. And down this river of consciousness float boats. The boats being the thoughts that present themselves to us, that pop up in our unconscious out of nowhere….There are various boats, but what they all have in common is that in our normal life as soon as a thought pops up into our consciousness we find ourselves obligated to think it. There it comes and all of a sudden we get bound up with it. The next thing you know, we’re thinking it and responding to it and reacting to it as if we have no choice at all. Thomas says that what we do is whenever a boat floats down the stream normally we feel impelled to climb into its hold and examine the contents. And what meditation really teaches us is to be a little diver sitting down on a rock down at the bottom of the river of consciousness and just letting the boats float by. So the thoughts can come and go, but we realize that just because a thought pops into our consciousness, we are not obligated to think it, react to it, respond to it, get caught in it, float downstream on it.
Remember you’re not in the boat, you’re sitting on the bank of the river. You can just let all the boats (aka your thoughts) idly go by. One by one.
If at some point you get interested in one of the boats and want to jump in, go for it.
If you’d rather just keep watching the boats float on by, go for it.
Both are choices. Either choice is appropriate. And you have the power to choose.
“Between stimulus and response there is a space. In that space is our power to choose our response. In our response lies our growth and our freedom.” -Viktor E. Frankl, Man’s Search For Meaning
Good news…No matter how bad your thoughts are, no one knows them and no one cares.
All that matters are your actions.
Bad news…No matter how good or well-intentioned your thoughts are, no one knows them and no one cares.
All that matters are your actions.
The best news of all…While you can’t control your thoughts, you can control your actions.
Speaking of doing things on spec and asking yourself how far you can take a project on your own…
This article on the making of the just released, independent film “The Last Stop In Yuma County” is inspiring on many levels.
I especially love the below quote from writer/director Francis Gallupi who after being fed up with the development process, took matters into his own hands, and proceeded as if the move was happening (even though he had no money)…
“I just started trying to pretend like we had money. I started shotlisting and photoboarding and writing letters to all these actors, hiring heads of departments and getting producers on board. Basically, everything you can do without any money.”
For any passion project, why not act as if it’s happening? Ask yourself what would you do if you had all the money in the bank. List out all the possible action steps. Create a work plan. Set deadlines. And go do as many of those things that don’t require money.
Worst case, you learn a ton from all your efforts.
Best case, it happens.
That’s a win-win either way.
Speaking of a regular “takeaway practice”, here’s a personal example re: VANYA…
One of the greatest plays I’ve ever seen is…a film?
Wait a second..Isn’t the whole point of theatre that you’re seeing something live and experiencing this “aliveness” with other people.
Yes.
But, the size of the venue matters greatly.
If you see a play from the back of the house, especially in a big theatre, it’s vastly different than seeing the exact same production from the first few rows. It’s two completely different shows. Two completely different experiences. For one thing, you miss all the nuances of what the actors are doing and feeling.
Which is why I love and make intimate theatre. (Grotowski said no more than 30 seats. Our Vs. space was 28.)
Or…
You can go see a National Theatre Live broadcast. Yes, they do live productions. But they also film them, and do so with craft and attention to detail. The result is what I experienced seeing VANYA on screen at the UCLA James Bridges Theater.
I was completely immersed in and mesmerized by the production. Andrew Scott was incredible. A one person tour de force. I loved how he gave each character a signature gesture that was consistent throughout. This allowed him to seamlessly transition back and forth among each character (a total of eight I believe) and for the audience to never get lost. The direction was tight and playwright Simon Stephens wrote an excellent, modern adaptation of Chekhov’s masterpiece. I also loved the nondescript, rehearsal room-like set. It fit perfectly with this being a one person show.
Afterwards, my friend Michael and I both said it was one of the best things we’ve ever seen. I told him and some other friends in attendance that unless I had the ability to see VANYA live and sit in the first few rows, I’d much prefer seeing it this way. I’m inspired to seek out more NT Live broadcasts.
P.S. – Seeing VANYA in a packed house (as opposed to streaming it in my house) also contributed greatly to my takeaway of it. Going through the emotional roller-coaster of the play, live with other invested audience members, provided the best of both worlds (theatre and film).
Speaking of takeaways…
Consider starting a regular “takeaway practice.”
For any art you consume, immediately afterwards, without reading any external reviews, write down at least three takeaways from it. These can be good or bad as you didn’t necessarily have to like the art. (It might be good to keep a notebook or “art journal”, and log all your entries by date.)
This practice will deepen your appreciation of all art and help develop your own personal taste and sensibility; a must for any artist.
P.S. – Bonus points if you share your thoughts with a friend.
“The most effective way to do it, is to do it.” -Amelia Earhart
“A goal is a dream with a deadline.” -Napoleon Hill
“It took me a long time to figure out that I needed deadlines. Deadlines were the difference between a dream and something that you complete. And what happens with deadlines is that you’ve got to ship, you have to abandon the project, and it’s not perfect. Because it’s not perfect, you kind of have to be ingenious about making it a little different. And I find that the deadlines force me to make decisions that you don’t have enough time [for]; you never have enough time. And so you think of something to—I wouldn’t say it’s a shortcut—you think of a way to finish it, and those little decisions are what make it a little different.” –excerpt from FS podcast episode with Kevin Kelly
Three reasons to give yourself arbitrary deadlines:
(1) Much like working out or doing hard things…In the moment, you don’t want to, but afterwards, you always feel great and are glad you did.
(2) They inspire you to be creative. Inevitably, you’ll be coming down to the wire to finish on time, and that’s when your magical subconscious takes over.
(3) They’re the only way to make your dreams come true.
“What separates the elite performers from everyone else? Not perfection, but consistency. This is why the most important thing is not to prevent mistakes altogether, but to avoid making a mistake twice in a row. Errors are part of the process, but they shouldn’t become part of the pattern. One mistake is just an outlier. Two mistakes is the beginning of a pattern. Killing this pattern before it snowballs into something bigger is one reason why learning how to get back on track quickly is an essential skill for building good habits.” -James Clear
Credited to the Venerable Bruno Lantieri, Nunc Coepi is a Latin phrase that translates to “Now I begin.” Or “Begin Again.”
it’s a good mantra to keep in mind at all times. No matter how bad your day is going or how far off kilter your schedule takes you, or what bad decision you made, at any point in time, you can say Nunc Coepi and get yourself back on track.
Like re-connecting to your breath to be present. saying Nunc Coepi re-connects you to the good work that you deep down, want to do.
Don’t let the day end without one small positive action. Nunc Coepi can be your key to doing so.
“The only kind of writing is rewriting.” -Ernest Hemingway, A Moveable Feast
Writing every day doesn’t make writing any easier. Like any creative act, it will always be hard and messy, especially at the beginning.
But by doing it every day, you no longer fool yourself into thinking it should be any different. You accept the process and are at peace with it.
Because you now know it’s all rewriting anyway.
“The effect of change in surroundings is like that of a lapse of time in making the past seem remote. With a tear for the dark past, turn we then to the dazzling future, and, veiling our eyes, press forward. The long and weary winter of the race is ended.” -novel, Looking Backward by Edward Bellamy
In the days of my youth
I was told what it means to be a man
Now I’ve reached that age
I’ve tried to do all those things the best I can
No matter how I try
I find my way to the same old jam
Good times, bad times
You know I’ve had my share -song, “Good Times Bad Times” by Led Zeppelin
I was alive and I waited, waited
I was alive and I waited for this
Right here, right now
There is no other place I want to be
Right here, right now -song, “Right Here Right Now” by Jesus Jones
Look back to reflect on the good times, learn from the bad times, and have confidence that because you’re able to look back, you can get through anything.
Look ahead to get excited about what’s possible. What art you can create. What difference you can make and how you can help. Be inspired.
But at the end of the day, it’s all just looking.
Return to right here, right now. Focus on what’s directly in front of you. Give it everything you got. Put your whole heart and soul into it. Because you never know, it might just be your last chance to do so.
The Vs. Studio Blog