The Vs. Studio Blog

“In Hollywood, no one knows anything.” -William Goldman

Nobody knows how or why they succeeded until they do.

And even then, they’re still winging it.

You don’t need more advice. You just need to start doing it.

“You know when you’re walking in the woods on a dark night…and you see a light shining far off in the distance…and you think to yourself: even though I’m tired and it’s dark and the branches are scratching my face…everything is gonna be okay…because I have that light? And I’ll get there eventually? Well, I work–you know this–I work harder than anyone else in this county. I mean, I’m beaten down, Sonya, I suffer unbearably…but I have no light in the distance. I can’t see anything up ahead. I no longer expect anything of myself and I don’t think I’m capable of really loving people.” -Astrov to Sonya in Uncle Vanya by Anton Chekhov (translated by Annie Baker)

Spock: I find your arguments strewn with gaping defects in logic.

McCoy: Maybe, but you can’t evaluate a man by logic alone. –Star Trek

Belief in yourself and your art is often not logical. Especially at the outset when you have no evidence that the thing you’re passionate about is something that you can actually manifest. You have no light in the distance.

There are a million “logical” reasons to just not do it. To not try.

But is art really about logic? Because so much great art, the kind that stays with you, comes from that messy, irrational, dream-like subconscious.

Go make your illogical art.

Welcome ladies and gentlemen
To the 8th wonder of the world!
The flow of the century, always timeless: Hov!
Thanks for coming out tonight
You could’ve been anywhere in the world
But you’re here with me, I appreciate that -song “Izzo (H.O.V.A) by Jay-Z

For the actor…

You and your character could be anywhere else in the world tonight, but the play calls for you to be right here, right now, under these given circumstances, with these other characters, fighting desperately for what you want.

You know who else could be anywhere else in the world tonight but chose to be here with you? The audience.

So, for yourself, your character, your fellow actors on stage, the play, the playwright, the designers, the stage crew and most especially, the audience…

Fight, man! Raise the stakes! Play your actions to the motherf-ckin hilt! Live dangerously. No turning back.

Cuz that’s what makes it theatre. Live. Special. Magical. Ephemeral.

Here today. Gone tomorrow.

Blood and guts. Leave it all out there on that stage. Play like a champion.

“Joy can only be real if people look upon their life as a service and have a definite object in life outside themselves and their personal happiness.” – Leo Tolstoy

“Fulfillment is found through connection to something bigger than the self. Find service, find joy.” -Sahil Bloom

“Joy is the abiding and pervasive sense of well being.” -Fr. Mike Schmitz

“My advice to the person suffering from lack of time and from apathy is this: Seek out each day as many as possible of the small joys.” -Herman Hesse

“Sometimes your joy is the source of your smile, but sometimes your smile can be the source of your joy.” -Thich Hat Hanh

“Joy is always in process. It’s under construction. It is in constant approach, alive and well in the doing of what we’re fashioned to do.” -Matthew McConaghey

“When you do things from your soul, you feel a river moving in you, a joy.” -Rumi

He who binds to himself a joy
Does the winged life destroy;
But he who kisses the joy as it flies
Lives in eternity’s sunrise. -William Blake

Happiness is a feeling, and as such, it is fleeting at best. It comes and goes like the wind.

Joy, on the other hand, is a choice. It’s not dependent on circumstances or emotions. It’s within your control. You can actively seek it out by willing the good of the other. And it lasts.

Therefore, in all things and circumstances, choose joy.

“If you cringe at your former self, that’s good—it means you’ve grown. Never stop cringing…It’s impossible to be a life-changing presence to some without also being a complete joke to others.” -Mark Manson

You will write or do something that at the time you think is amazing. You think you couldn’t have said or done it any better.

Later on, a year or two, maybe more, maybe less, you will look back on said thing and cringe. (This happens often to me when I re-read my past blog posts.)

That’s good. Cringing is good.

It means you’ve grown and your standards have grown.

It also means you were courageous enough at the time to ship your work. Good on you.

Never stop cringing.

Never stop making and shipping your art.

So, so what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want? (what’cha want?)
I get so funny with my money that you flaunt
I said, “Where’d you get your information from” huh?
You think that you can front when revelation comes?
(Yeah, you can’t front on that)

So what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want? (what’cha want?)
So what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want? (what’cha want?)
I said, what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want? (what’cha want?)
I said, what’cha, what’cha, what’cha want? (what’cha want?) -song, “So What’cha Want” by Beastie Boys

The eternal question:

“What do I want?”

Besides consulting the Oracle at Delphi, below are some practical strategies that might help:

(1) Ask…Listen…Notice. Ask the question. Listen with an open mind. If/when thoughts or answers arise, don’t judge. Just notice them.

(2) Ask the question in some slightly different ways: “What might I want?” This lets off the hook from coming up with the “right” answer. Or drill down a little deeper: “What do I really, really want?”

(3) WRITE. Journal about your thoughts and feelings. Again, don’t judge. Just write. (For some inspiration during your journaling sessions, put this song on repeat.)

(4) If you have some potential answers, now ask yourself WHY you might want it. Repeat steps 1-3 above. Don’t worry if your “why” isn’t coherent. Just capture your feelings. Tap into your subconscious. Trust that clarity will come later.

(5) If you have an inkling of what you might want and why, then now, go try stuff. Get into action. Experiment. Turn it into a project. Prototype. After a few months, see how you feel. Energized and excited?…Then, keep going in this direction. Not so much?…Make something else.

(6) Remind yourself to be grateful that you even get to pursue what you want. It’s a gift.

This all might seem a bit tedious. But if it unlocks your true purpose and calling, your WHY…then isn’t it worth it?

“What’s worth doing even if I fail?” -Brene Brown

The above question is a great one to ask yourself. Repeatedly.

For if you arrive at an answer, and then take action towards it, there is no way you can “fail.”

The true value always lies in the attempt.

“You’ve gotta love the dirt.” -Gary Vaynerchuk

“The dirt is where you start. It’s where you’re built. It’s where you find your initial success. We all start in the dirt on the journey to success, but few are willing to remain there. Few fall in love with the dirt. The day you leave the dirt is the day the clock starts ticking down on your run.” -Sahil Bloom

Before you get the big, bountiful rows of corn, you’ve gotta do a ton of hardscrabble, unfun, thankless, unseen, pick and shovel work. You’ve gotta love the dirt.

Besides the farmer, this applies to any endeavor. Some examples…

The actor: learning lines.

The producer: writing cold (yet thoughtful) emails.

The athlete: getting up early and working out.

The musician: constantly playing scales.

The investor: doing tons of research to find one opportunity.

No dirt. No glory.

“My anger is more likely to do me more harm than your wrong…Moreover, if it be the duty of the wise man to be angry at base deeds, and to be excited and saddened at crimes, then is there nothing more unhappy than the wise man, for all his life will be spent in anger and grief.”” -Seneca, On Anger

“Try to remember that when you find yourself getting mad. Anger is not impressive or tough – it’s a mistake. It’s weakness. Depending on what you’re doing, it might even be a trap that someone laid for you.” -Ryan Holiday, book The Daily Stoic

“And why should we feel anger at the world? As if the world would notice!” -Euripides

In 1976, Howard Beale got up on live television and screamed “I’m Mad As Hell And I’m Not Gonna Take It Anymore!!!” And then he urged us to get up, go open our windows, and scream those same words.

It’s nearly fifty years later and we’re still mad as hell. Angrier than we’ve ever been. But the question is, what are we doing with all this anger?

Are we just taking it? Because that’s what the media wants. Get angry and then “take” these two pills to feel better. (Ever notice just how many pharmaceutical ads run during the nightly news?)

Or.

Are we taking that anger and using it as fuel to affect real, positive change in the world?

P.S. – Big thanks to John K. and the Vs. gang for a sizzling Tuesday Night Reading of “Network” yesterday, and inspiring this post.

“There is nothing noble in being superior to your fellow men. True nobility lies in being superior to your former self.” – Ernest Hemingway

“When you are content to be simply yourself and don’t compare or compete, everybody will respect you.” –Tao Te Ching by Lao-Tzu (Stephen Mitchell translation)

“Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” -Alexander Pope

“All happiness depends on the proportion of what we claim and what we receive. It is immaterial how great or small the two quantities of this proportion are, and the proportion can be established just as well by diminishing the first quantity as by increasing the second.” -Arthur Schopenhauer, book The World as Will and Representation

“In a very real sense, we are as young as we feel inside. what we feel and think will determine what we experience, which will in turn influence what we feel and what we think, in a never-ending cycle.” -David Robson, book The Expectation Effect

Teddy Roosevelt once said “comparison is a thief of joy.” He’s right. It is.

I’ll add another thief of joy: Expectation.

Yet comparison and expectation are inevitable. We do it all the time without even thinking about it. It’s hard not to.

So what to do? Repress these feelings? Just accept our fate and be doomed to a life of misery?

I present another option.

How about we make friends with these thieves? Or as the Buddhists would advise us to do with any negative feelings, “invite them in for a cup of tea.”

Huh? Say, what?

Take the first thief: comparison. Let people’s accomplishments inspire and motivate you. If you’re a bit jealous, good! Get curious with your jealousy. Be thankful for it. Maybe it’s a clue as to where you should direct your time and energy. A potential passion project lurks.

And with the second thief: expectation. Use the power of expectation to believe good things will happen. Get specific. Write down your goals and your “why.” Visualize not only the outcome, but the whole process, warts and all. And so you don’t get overly attached to the expectation, use the mantra of “this…or something better.”

Make friends with the joy thieves. Harness their skills to assist you in setting goals and achieving your dreams.