Acting is mostly reacting. We’re always in reaction, and there are many ways to react.
Reacting is an artistic choice. By now, you favor certain reactions over others. You may even feel those reactions define you. Performing is a learned skill. You picked it up even before you mastered a vocabulary.
Don’t you repeat your favourite narratives over and over, to the discomfort of everyone around you?
We put on a predictable show. We are seasoned actors following old scripts. “I don’t know why I say that stuff,” we may reflect afterward, but the next performance is the same. So, too, are the apologies and justifications.
You’re capable of doing more than following old stage directions. You can rewrite the script. You can also improvise. Experience informs the things you say and the choices you make, but so does imagination. So does ingenuity.
If you’re afraid to hold your little lamp up to the truth, you’ll remain an enigma to yourself: the mystery you’re least willing to solve. Childhood fears fall away, but grown-up fears last a lifetime if they’re not confronted. What you’re able to see in yourself you’re able to see in everyone. And seeing is the essence of art. It’s important that artists study themselves. It’s important that you do.
Listen. Observe. Trust life. Go your own way, while respecting the ways of others. Accept situations as they present themselves, and respond honestly. Do you welcome the unexpected? Can you manage disappointment with grace? If not, make these your new disciplines.
Your behaviour is so automatic that you may not notice most of what you do and say. You may not even be curious about it. You’ve learned your responses by heart the way you once memorised popular songs and multiplication tables. And now, maybe those responses rule you.
When was the last time you listened to yourself and questioned what you were saying? How often do you make a fresh observation—or say nothing, rather than saying something predictable? Do you dare correct yourself, or admit you have no idea what you’re talking about?
Outside opinions shouldn’t control your thinking. Pay attention, and you can change the way you react. You can discard a few outdated beliefs. You can have pleasant and unpleasant experiences and remain emotionally stable.
You can improve your relationship with words by selecting them consciously and creatively.
Protect yourself from your own abuses, no one can do it for you.
Love is every artist’s most compelling motivation.
In the theologian sense, to be impeccable means to be without sin. For you, the artist, it’s a sin to go against yourself. It’s a sin to disrespect your art. Imagine yourself as impeccable—how would that look and sound? How would you move through the world?
Well, imagine saying what you mean and doing what you say. Imagine you’re someone who never assumes, but asks and then evaluates. Imagine that you can listen to criticism without reacting defensively. Imagine doing your best, and that your best efforts evolve over time.