The Reality of Focus

The reality of focus is the power that we possess when we use the mind to control the brain. The mind is the spiritual talent based use of life energy. It is the use of this reality of focus that storytelling can empower the storyteller and his audience. Storytelling is a process by which incidents or events of human understanding, either fiction or non-fiction, are presented in some form to share the human experience. Storytelling is how we communicate to each other as members of same species.

The process of storytelling is the oldest form of healing known to man. It’s the ability used by storytellers from shaman to witch doctor, from mystic to priest, from actor to artist to use the power of energy to facilitate healing. With this ability, the actor can take the audience out of its pain and give it a respite. The actor can give the audience a break from themselves so they don’t need to use their energy to protect their vessel, the body. It is the reality of focus.

The actor can use his energy, through Talent, to uplift the audience physically and emotionally. Correctly maintained, the actor’s Talent can allow the audience, individually or collectively, to explore the miracles of their life’s journey of self healing both physically and emotionally. This program is designed to empower you so you can go about the business of being a storyteller. This program is designed to help you have the power to see through the veil of deception that has shrouded this profession for over a hundred years. At the turn of the 20th century theater managers and directors started to come from outside of the acting community. This evolved to producers as well. The support jobs began to be taken away from the actor and he was relegated to acting only. This resulted in great knowledge loss and the loss of secondary jobs that were used to support the actor during dry spells.
Here is the truth. You have every right to achieve. You have every right to be recognized for your value and contributions to this business. When I leave this mortal coil for the next I want to say at my welcome home party, “I met everyone living who was the focus of the energy of life. I saw it all. I lived it all. I made a difference for those who could not.” You too must take the chance to go after your dreams with dignity and pride. You must have the confidence that gives you the power to face the middleman. The middleman could be the casting director, the agent, the producer or anyone who has taken away your belief in yourself. It is through the reality of focus. This focus is energy based and within your control.
There are recent scientific experiments that suggest that all that is, the invisible energy that holds all things together can be guided to support your true desires. It suggests that all are included in the power and bounty of the universe. This invisible energy of all that is actually responds to energy driven thoughts regardless of what form those thoughts take. This universal energy will respond to them. Science now supports the commonly held belief that what you focus on is what appears in your world. If you focus on loss then that is what you can expect. It is a quantum level belief and substantiates the energy that supports positive or negative thinking.

It is important that you do not let your thoughts support your fears! Can you remember when there have been times in your life when everything seemed to go right for you on all levels? How did you feel during those times? Can you recreate that physical and mental experience? You can look at the accomplishments you made during those periods. Now, remember when things began to change. They either changed overnight or they changed gradually until you no longer felt in control or empowered. Is there one person that comes to mind that was the conscious reason for your loss of control! There was one person in your mind who was the catalyst for your feeling of power. This one person had the power to shift your reality of focus.

In this program you will define which points during your life you have felt powerful. You’ll define what elements of your life have been consistently at counter purpose with you. You’ll find the areas of sabotage in your life that have kept you from the beliefs that empower you as a human being.

In the exercises for this lesson you will take the time to evaluate where you are today in relation to your expectations as of one year ago. One of the beautiful things about life is that change can come at any time. All you have to do is be willing to change. Most people don’t realize that they have set themselves at a default level that will always be the most comfortable. Sometimes being miserable is actually more comfortable than facing the unknowingness of change.

In this program you’ll recognize what you want to change. You’ll find those hidden beliefs that have more power in your life than your conscious thoughts. You’ll find what causes you to sabotage efforts. And, you’ll discover what the comfort levels are for the various areas of your life. Once you’ve recognized your comfort levels, the unsatisfactory ones can be changed.

I wish you well... hope your holidays are bringing you joy and happiness and that you are sharing the same.

The Place Called Talent

I believe that being in Talent converts your life energy from an internal, self-protecting circumstance to the external power of healing. In the movie Billy Elliot, Billy is asked by one of the dance committee members, “What do you think about when you’re dancing?” After struggling for an answer, he realizes there is no answer, because he ‘thinks’ of nothing, he just “is”. What Billy was defining was Talent in its purest form. Every ounce of his life energy, through his knowledge and repetition, had been channeled and projected out of his body and into the bodies of his audience. Once this happens, the ultimate goodness of the human condition is realized.

In Talent no judgments are made, no individual is singled out. The audience is given the performance energy. You know what it feels like when you sense that you have touched someone. This touching is literal. It is not figurative. MakeBelieve™ is that place called Talent. We will discuss later the Road to MakeBelieve™: balance – passion – cover. You will learn how to physically take your body to make believe and sustain it for the character to live. Talent happens with the spiritual use of energy. When your body uses your life energy it is for survival. When your spirit uses your life energy it is for others. For your spirit to use energy, you must harness it through discipline in order to enhance its power. Energy is conscious, it is deliberate, and it is divine.

Your actions must be logical and knowledge based if they are to be successful. If not, you run the risk of perpetuating the old adage – “practice makes permanent”. That comes through repetition without knowledge. You want to base your actions by emulating the very best. You want to do this in all areas of your life. You want to make sure your knowledge base is accurate and constantly updated. There are situations that have come up in your life when you were thinking positive thoughts and suddenly you took a negative mental direction. You shifted mood without your control.

You want the ability to return to the positive thought rather than stay in the negative thought. That ability is made through the process of talent. It is done by repositioning your physical energy to a higher frequency thus requiring the universe to respond to a higher energy. That higher energy will cause the conversation in the brain to change from negative to positive. This may require many repeated physical changes until you have taken control of your thoughts with your life energy. It is part of the law of attraction. No one will ever have the power to avoid unexpected negative thoughts and feelings. You want to learn to recognize them for what they are and disempower them with your talents.

Once you become aware of your talents you will become empowered to use them to go to a higher frequency resulting in positive physical and mental control. It’s all about empowering yourself with the joy of living and the thrill of life’s challenges.

Talent

The Process of Talent. My definition for talent is knowledge plus repetition, represented by this formula: T = K + R. Talent = Knowledge + Repetition

Talent is a physiological process that is in your control. Talent is not an idea. It is the result of a real definable process. There is a difference between Talent, the place, and the individual talents that you have acquired. You may have many talents for many different areas of your life, but all of them share one thing in common. They share that place called Talent. The place called Talent is where the physical and spiritual are blended together creating the ultimate human condition. It is a place of no fear. You can go to that place when you learn to control internal conversation. You then control your life energy so that it flows in harmony with the universal flow and attracts to it the power to heal and transform. Your talents are the areas where you have, through knowledge and physical repetition, taken control of your life energy.

Yes, talent is a physiological process. Through physical repetition the knowledge is changed from thoughts to electrical impulses that go into the muscle tissue and become muscle memory. This muscle memory eliminates the need for the brain to contemplate or seek the information of how. You can instantly go to this physical place of knowledge by a physical awareness. It is this knowledge in the muscle tissue that creates an energy exchange that makes the whole process of talent a conduit to divine inspiration.

With this knowledge of talent you will not be at the mercy of others who can manipulate and de-focus your goals and true desires. Your Life Energy is controlled by your spiritual, universal self when in the form of Talent. The spiritual you and the earthly you compete for energy control. The earthly you instinctively wants the energy for survival. When things seem to make you crazy, you are not in talent. Actors who have continued success in their careers have certain degrees of individual talents to support that success. Talent is the result of years of effort. Yes, that means years of knowledge acquisition and years of physical repetition of that knowledge. Your quest is two fold: to understand the process of Talent and to create specific talents to take you to that place called Talent.

Have a nice day!
Russ

Tools the actor needs

There is a saying: “writers write… musician’s practice, dancer’s dance” whether or not he or she is working. The instrument must be kept in shape. You must keep your instrument in shape. What do you need to practice? What is fundamental to your success? Just what things do you need to do on a consistent basis to hone and maintain your craft as an actor?

Tools Needed by the Actor

• learning lines
• following direction
• being punctual
• being easy to work with
• knowing the instrument (your body)
• being in control of the instrument (your body)
• keeping the instrument (your body) mobile
• keeping the instrument (your body) healthy
• keeping the instrument (your body) ready
• knowing how to go to make believe
• being able to sustain make believe
• knowing the power of energy
• knowing how energy is used to become Talent
• realizing Talent is a place
• understanding the emotional levels of the body
• understanding how to ‘play’ the emotional levels of body
• knowing how to interpret the director’s needs for the character
• knowing what the collaborative process is
• integrating the entire collaborative process into the efforts

and,

• knowing how to blend the total creative concept to achieve an ensemble effect.

If it sounds like a tall order, it is. But you can accomplish all of this by daily exercise. You will find that your acting ability and confidence level will increase dramatically from month to month. First you must deal with your level of self respect. How do you operate? Many actors spend time lamenting not having an acting job. They sometimes pursue an acting job that they’re not qualified or experienced enough to do. This apparent lack of respect for the job responsibilities could be a lack of self respect.

What buttons turn on your emotional responses? What takes you away from having control of your Best You? The answers to these questions are keys to understanding the actor’s job. They are also keys to developing and translating a character into the character’s reality. Make believe is the character’s reality and is, unlike our own, without fear.
Changing Motivational Awareness

I once offered a course titled: “I Want to Be a Star and I Want to Know How Long It Will Take Me to Get There”. The essence of the course was one’s motivation for fame and fortune. It may sound cynical and selfish to imply that all actors are motivated for fame and fortune, but I believe it is the truth. There are actors who advocate that they just want to make a steady living. I believe they’re setting themselves up for a no win circumstance because that indicates a lack of self respect. Why would anyone pursue an acting career unless he or she thought the ultimate goal would be fame and fortune? If you’re pursuing a career where success equals fame and fortune you need to be aware of your motivating factors.

Do you believe that you deserve the spoils of your efforts? Do you believe that your life is worth fame and fortune? Do you believe that you can achieve great things? If you don’t you may be cutting off the divine flow that leads to inspiration. The performing arts are built on the willingness to sacrifice time and energy to achieve marketable skills. Marketable skills can be elevated to a level of talent. Many actors fail to understand that talent is a process. Understanding the Process of Talent will help you focus. Anything you focus on can become part of your process for working. One of the blocks to this process of maintaining your talents are the conversations that go on in your head. These conversations indicate who is in control of your Life Energy.

The Reality of MakeBelieve

I thought I might share with you some thoughts from my new book, The Reality of MakeBelieve.

I have searched to discover what it takes to succeed in this profession and what it takes to enjoy the process. Some actors who have great natural talent, strong academic backgrounds and tremendous experience unfortunately, have the same low success rate as actors with little or no training. Regrettably the ability to become successful is not guaranteed by the best schools, the best opportunities or the strongest connections. Although all people are capable of incredible things, what most people accomplish is another story.

My finding can be summed up in what I call the 4 D’s. The 4 D’s are desire, dedication, determination and discipline. This blog deals with the 4 D’s and an understanding of their application to your world of expectation. With a clear working understanding of the 4 D’s you’ll achieve the knowledge base and tools necessary to be competitive in this business and avoid the concept of failure.

Failure is a perception. You can change any beliefs that get in the way of your dreams. However, for this to happen you must be clear as to what your thoughts are and how your thinking process is supporting or undermining your desires. Desires are those things that you wish to manifest into reality. They are the things in life that you tell yourself are of value to you. Things that will make your life become what you believe will make you happy and fulfilled. The truth is that happiness and fulfillment are found in the now. No amount of effort is going to arrive at a place called happiness. Once you accept that your ability to be happy is a choice then you can begin to find happiness in the path to what you desire. Understanding how your thoughts translate a desire is key to your perceived success or failure. Everything that must evolve has a process. The thinking process is the beginning of any journey toward desire. If that process is flawed as a result uncontrolled thoughts then the ability to guide a thought from desire to manifestation is diminished. However, if you understand the power of your thinking process and refuse to control it your personal issues are based on a desire for self loathing and defeat. Therefore, failure is not a process and comes from knowing what you should do but refusing to do those things. In fact, it is your non actions that create a perception of failure that leads you to the fear of trying. The most important knowledge about failure is that it is only the absence of success. In itself it is powerless. It requires you to keep it in control. Success is created by action and action is a fundamental reality of a life journey that is positive and fulfilled.

The process of success comes from being willing able to control your thinking process, clarify your desires, learn from your experiences and create different approaches to your goals when a certain action appears to yield negative results. You already know that if you really want something you’ll do what it takes, learn what you must, focus and create the actions to make it happen. Dedicate yourself to this effort. Action is the key factor in really wanting something. If the actions you’re taking are ineffective, change your actions. You must be willing to change course. By learning to become aware of your true desires and your thoughts you can tap into your ability to be all that you can possibly be. Your goal to become a successful professional actor is really going to be up to you. And, you can make working toward a professional acting career a thrilling ride.

Avoiding mediocrity is important to your process. Learn how to stay clear of mediocrity. You do this by recognizing it in your thoughts and in your actions. Often we are unaware of the mediocrity of our existence because so many around us are in the same place. It is not normal for a successful actor not having an agent. It is not normal for a successful actor not to be a member of any actors’ union. Complaining about your circumstance is a path paved by mediocrity and must be avoided. Your thoughts will tell you to what degree you are responsible for your own circumstance of mediocrity. Your internal dialogue or thinking process guides your actions. You control those thoughts or you do not. If you don’t then you must discover what is getting in the way of your growth. Mediocrity loves company just like it’s friend misery. Stay clear of others who find excuses easier to support than action.

In order to guide yourself toward success you must define what that term “success” means to you. A definition of success related to money earned is the most limiting of all possible definitions of success. Unfortunately, the vast majority accept this definition for success. Success must be based on the feelings that you get with the results of your actions. Most working actors find a certain degree of financial success. The degree of that financial success is based on the arena with which your talents are used. Being a professional actor in relation to finding employment in academia or non-profit circumstances can be a choice. That choice must come with the agreement of the income the circumstance can generate.

For our purposes we are going to follow a path toward being a successful professional actor. That will result in celebrity both financial and personal. This does not mean that pursuing a career in the theatre must be guided by this expectation. It does, however, mean that you are clear as to your choices as to pursuit and acceptance.

Every other art form has a science. Dance has names for the individual steps that combine together to form a choreography. Fine art also has different strokes, brushes, mediums, textures. Art, dance, music all have objective techniques that can be taught, learned, and mastered. They have a science. So does acting. The difference lies in the distribution of the knowledge of that science. The knowledge of the science does not guarantee success but it does put a point of reference toward expectation of success.

You want to know what is in the way of taking actions to improve your chance of success. You want to know what things you can do on a daily basis that will insure you a successful future in acting. You want to discover and practice those daily exercises to make the growth happen.

First you must define the knowledge and skills you are trying to enhance and secure. Next you must secure those skills necessary to perform and maintain an upwardly mobile career as an actor. You are going to acknowledge what it takes to make acting as a career support your happiness and well being in all areas of your life.

By working on a daily basis, you’ll improve the quality of your life and the power of your talents. Your ‘stick-to-it-tive-ness’ through discipline (use of time) and your desire to follow the rules of this successful strategy are key. It is important to identify your existing talents and how they can be practiced on a daily basis. This awareness of your existing abilities and talents will enable you to then identify other talents that you currently need.

Start the activities to create actions that propel you toward the destiny that you expect for yourself. On a daily basis empower yourself through motivation and new specifically designed strategies. Be determined (resolute) to dedicate (commit) your desires (wants) to becoming realities through discipline (controlled use of time). How you think and how you use your time are choices that you make. Let's start making choices that give us power over our personal destiny.

Have a great day.

Russ