Unwanted Thoughts
There are thousands of self-help books on the market that support the power of positive thinking. A major problem is that they don’t present a way of getting you out of negative thinking. They only offer band-aids for gaping wounds. They tend to be cosmetic and superficial. As long as you are not in a negative emotional state they may be helpful. However, when you are in a negative emotional state you often can’t see the forest for the trees and you have no path to get out of it.
The solution has to come from within you. It must come from the physical you because it isn’t what you are thinking, but what is causing you to think it. It’s not outside of you, it’s inside of you. There have been situations in your life when you were thinking positive thoughts and suddenly you took a negative mental direction. Your shift in mood seemed to happen without your control. Your mood shift is being manipulated by your creature with its own agenda. It is the ability to return to the positive thought rather than stay in the negative thought that is your quest. Now, the question is how to do it.
This ability, like anything else, must be made through the process of Talent by the recognition and control of fear. No one will ever have the power to avoid unexpected negative thoughts and feelings but if you recognize them for the fear they are, you can disempower them. You should know that the physical you has the agenda to survive. You should know the intellectual (spiritual) part of you has the agenda to be part of “All That Is”, part of the universe. The earthly part of you is not supported by logic or understanding. Like any animal, the earthly part of you deals with its immediate needs and its quest to be free from danger. It will go to any extreme to guarantee that. The physical or earthly part of you does not understand the consequences of energy displacement. It does not understand the devastating and destructive power of stress and anxiety.
The earthly part of you (creature) is responsive to external feelings (electrical impulses)emmited by other life forms. The earthly part of you works to keep your life energy in your muscle tissue in order to fight or run as needed for survival. Its response to hostile or none defined external energies is to activate its survival mechanisms. Those mechanisms are based on the intensity of the feeling. Those feelings will be translated to thoughts that are situated in the part of your brain that controls your survival instincts. They will be inturperted to you by your internal dialogue.
The creature (animal) in you will first activate your five senses to make sure that the feeling of danger is not immediate. If that does not satify the ability to calm the physical defense response, it will search out most recent memories that are stored in the brain based on the same level of feeling in question. The creature has the instinctive power to override your logical thinking process. It has the power to stop your intellectual (logical)actions and it also has the power to activate negative beliefs and fears to support its desire to stay in control of your life energy for its suppossed survival needs.
Negative beliefs result in disempowering thoughts. Once activated the resulting internal dialogue often becomes impossible to change. Your resulting internal dialogue appears to justify and rationalize that which is neither just nor rational.
Your quest is to reach some kind of harmony, agreement or understanding between you and the creature in you. The basic of the earth part that you carry inside must learn to trust your ability to override its instinctive reactions. The creature is like a frightened child. It must learn to trust. But first you must learn how the mindless creature manipulates your thoughts. It does this by making you believe that the feelings you are having are caused by the thoughts (internal dialogue) you are hearing.
You must accept the power of the creature's instincts to place your body in a defense position. However, you must not allow that power to go beyond the senses and active memories of past fears.
You must recognize your physicalfeelings are causing your thoughts of dispair or unhappiness and not your thoughts of dispair or unhappiness that are causing your feelings.
If your thoughts appear to cause you to be unable to perform the actions needed to move your quest toward happiness and growth then you must first learn to change the physical feeling (controlled by your creature) as many times as necessary until you have control of your internal dialogue by intellectual control. If the actions toward your goals are stopped by your thoughts of dispair recognize the true source of those thoughts. Your creature may have, by habit, been able to manipulate your thoughts in order to fullfill its need to protect the physical body.
It is important for you to search the other areas of your life that are in conflict with your goals. Ask yourself, “Why would a person who believes these things pursue an acting career?” And then ask yourself, “What kind of person pursues an acting career and yet refuses to take the actions that will make it happen?” What does this say about you? No matter the content of the negative thoughts, they all boil down to the same result: they are negative thoughts that are being used to keep you from action. When you change the negative physical feelings that demand the negative thoughts, you can move on with your efforts. This is a process and must be repeated until you are satisfied with the thoughts (internal dialogue)you are having.
Those who are successful will not have fewer negative thoughts but they will have a shorter reaction time to those thoughts. You can be one of these people.
You should know that many of your non supportive beliefs acivated by the physical you come from the beliefs of family and friends while growing up. They most likely are not even beliefs that you hold as your desired rules of living. Yet, they are still used by your creature to activate non supportive thoughts.
Acknowledge thoughts that you are having and remember where these negative beliefs originated. Realizing that rejected beliefs, still being used for your internal dialogue, are clues to you as to which part of you is really runing your emotional life. Once you evaluate the source of the negative thoughts that you are having to justify your efeelings you may realize that you have actually been, on some level, enjoying your misery. Why? Because these negative thoughts may be protecting you from your fear of entering or returning to the perceived rejection game. Once you begin evaluating your negative thoughts you will realize that you would never drag up all the unpleasant and hurtful events of the past. That would not be logical and it would make no sense. We want to learn how to make yourself aware of the negative thoughts intent. And, who is controlling it.
Once you understand this you can make it change. You must use practice of physical control once you acknowledge the limiting thoughts and beliefs. Once you accept that you have allowed your thoughts to be used to stop your quest to find the knowledge and repetitions needed to overcome thing you fear, you can activate the process of chanage. You can learn to disempower these negative and limiting thoughts at the source, physical feelings, and by doing so, eliminate your creature's ability to use them.
By doing this you may also become aware of some negative associations you have made to various aspects of the acting profession. These beliefs and associations may be holding you back and stopping you from enjoying your life journey. Every action you don’t take has just as many results as actions you do take. The age-old expression, “Every action has an equal reaction” could also be, “Every in-action has an equal in-action”. Everything you don’t do (such as mailing out that head shot, showing up for an audition, trying to get into a showcase, learning the names of all the players in the games you wish to play…) is and of itself an action. You are setting a course.
You may be allowing your creature to navagate your destiny to nowhere. Not doing the things that you should be doing must become conscious. If you can take control of your thoughts and your feelings you can move to the winners circle. It would be a mistake to assume that others know what direction to take or that the process of success is understood beyond theory. You can separate from the oppressive 98% failure group and move into the much less crowded 2% success group. This leap from the masses to the special few is part of your life journey as a successful professional actor. Your successful future will be supported by your ability to recognize and change your fear-based behavior and patterns. You can become aware of who and what is controlling your thoughts and feeling and why.
Setting a Cause to Motion
Now you can recognize the fear or habits used in your daily life that keep you from taking the path that will lead to greater satisfaction and success. Everything you think or do is going to cause a result. It’s up to you to make sure the results are what you want. A cause is set in motion to create an effect. Each effect piles on the other to create a direction. Every direction brings you to your destiny. You are destined to end up a success or failure in your own heart based on the actions or non-actions you take. The choices you make create a pattern of life. If left unchallenged this life result may not be what you had in mind. Know what meaning you want your life to have. Once you have become a successful professional actor and have achieved wealth and fame, know what do you want your life to be about?
You already know that no amount of money will bring you peace and happiness. The knowledge that you have accomplished something worthwhile by controlling your thoughts and feelings is what can do that. The things in life that can be classified as worthwhile are those things that have a direct effect on other human beings and on their efforts to find health, happiness and security.
What you expect to accomplish over the next 5, 10 or 25 years has to be set in motion now. There are many circumstances already in your life that can help you design the life that you want to lead. However, there are other circumstances, beliefs: thoughts that support the negative side… the fearful side… the low self esteem side… the unloved side... that can be used by your creature to misdirect and confuse you through feelings (not thoughts) if uncontrolled.
What are your “fear based” negative associations? “I’ll never make it; I’m not attractive enough to be a successful actor; I’m not smart enough; I’m not desirable enough; I’m not good enough; I’m afraid to have my feelings hurt?” None of these things apply to the truth of your beliefs. These are all illogical thoughts and could only be used by a mindless creature. You must use your intellect and self-awareness to move forward in your life by controlling your beliefs and your inner dialogue. Outdated beliefs that can be actualized can chip away at your confidence. They can undermine your efforts toward growth and development.
These fear-based beliefs can only work against you if they are not being monitored. Know when they are being used. Analyze beliefs that you have long since negated yet somehow appear to be in your thoughts. Look back at your youth. Think about your life as a child. Think about the French scenes of your life and how those events used energy to defend at the cost of negative beliefs. Were you overweight, too thin, awkward, afraid that people would find out you were gay? How were you teased? Acknowledge that you know these negative attacks have no power over you today. Acknowledge that you have refused to give them power. Know the negative thoughts that you have are thougths you know are pointless for your growth. Also know that they are key to your creatures non-thinking desire to control your energy. Then, and only then, will you be the captain of your own ship.
Translated emotional scars are like magnets to your creature. The resulting internal dialogue is often not recognized by you as manipulation for the control of your life energy. Recognize the manipulation happening within your being. Accept the duality of who you are. You are physical, of the earth, and you are intellectual, of the spirit. Your uniqueness is based on which part of you is in control of your life. The physical controls survival at all cost. The intellectual controls your desire to be better than the animals you have been seperated from. Take away the power of your creature by accepting the negative thoughts you may be having are of no value to you. Negative thoughts are just guides to who is in control of your being.
Don't forget, wisdom is the lifetime quest for every human being who is searching for control over his/her emotions: searching for peace, harmony and understanding of this miracle called living.
Have a wonderful week and I wish you well.
Russ
Monday, February 28, 2011
Monday, February 21, 2011
Habit
It’s possible that many of your beliefs or associations about acting are similar to beliefs or associations you have in other areas of your life. These are areas which appear to have nothing to do with acting. They are things you do on a regular basis without thinking. These are habits. A habit is a learned pattern of behavior. You may have acquired habits that don’t support your desires or expectations to be an actor. There are good habits and there are bad habits. They both work the same way. If you do something a certain way, for a certain period of time, it becomes comfortable.
The process of habit may appear pretty much the same as the process of talent. The process for talent is knowledge to repetition until it becomes physically comfortable as it becomes muscle memory. It becomes physically comfortable when it can be done without thinking. The difference between a habit and a talent is the focus of the end result. Your talents have been designed and developed with purpose. A habit, on the other hand, just happen without thought of consequence.
A habit is not the result of discipline. And, as we know, discipline (use of time) is the fundamental need to create a talent. As for habit, the body works toward pleasure if left to its own devices. If it feels good then the repetition becomes easy and the result becomes self-gratifying, if not self-enhancing. The use of pain and pleasure guide your physical life. However, to achieve a talent you must make a choice to accept the discomfort the body will imagine is being experienced through discipline. With controlled actions you are moving away from habit and moving toward a goal that will support your professional desires.
Don't forget, the body on its quest for pleasure, left to its own control, will override logic, intelligence and common sense to repeat the feeling of a pleasure. This often results in the non-supportive habit.
You know when you are doing something that supports your career and your life. You also know when you are not.
What is it that allows you to accept these non-supportive actions (these habits) without working to disempower them? The answer to this question is simple. The application of that answer is not. It is, none the less, about choice. It’s about taking control of your comfort zones of habit and redesigning your objectives toward talents.
Getting the Job
Less than 2% of actors work enough to get insurance through their unions. There are many working actors and there are plenty of good jobs for them. There are many opportunities for the actor if you have positioned yourself in the right place with the right clarity of your product. In this business many actors have proven that they can do the job. Many have also proven that they have a fear of getting the job. There are also many actors in the storytelling process who may not have as many talents as others, but they have no fear of getting the job. Therefore, they work.
You can develop the talent for getting the job by eliminating the fear of getting the job. This is done with knowledge. There are some basic things you need to know to enhance your efforts at being more competitive. First, you need to know that you have every right to pursue a given acting job if you are not clear that your talents are up to the task. Secondly, regardless of the outcome of the audition, you must accept that you can’t fail because a ‘yes or no’ result is still fulfilling your responsibility to the odds, and the path by which talents are achieved.
Each person you meet may be instrumental in your quest for a successful professional acting career. Therefore, you must create the circumstance to meet as many as possible. Treat them with the appreciation and enthusiasm that you may well need to give them in the future. Use your energy in its performance mode. It’s a game, and the rules change based on the circumstance and the genre.
There are general rules that are consistent. The decision making person, the one in control of whether or not you get the job, is not your friend, not your buddy, not your equal, nor are they your enemy. This person is evaluating your type, your style, your believability, your adaptability to format, your ability to take direction, your emotional balance and the power of your personal energy. They evaluate this by how your audition affects their being. The more auditions you have the better you will get at demonstrating those abilities. Every audition allows repetition of your current knowledge. It also provides an opportunity for additional knowledge to be placed into repetition.
In your quest to achieve a talent and remove the fear of getting the job, the number of auditions will far outweigh the value of the project during your developmental stages. Until you are completely clear about the talents needed for major professional acting jobs, you are free to pursue as many acting auditions as possible, regardless of production level. It doesn't matter how small, how unprofessional or how tasteless the project. It’s not about taking the job; it’s about being offered the job. You must have the confidence to believe that you have the talents needed to support the job description for the auditon.
The best way to achieve the talents needed to get the auditions and to win the jobs is by increasing your knowledge of the tools needed and putting that knowledge into muscle memory by repetition. You do this with more auditons. Therefore, go to as many auditons as you can, regardless of the quality or potential of the project. At this stage its quantity, not quality that is your objective. You want to create the circumstances where you can be seen and evaluated leading to offers of opportunity.
Have a wonderful week.
I wish you well,
Russ
It’s possible that many of your beliefs or associations about acting are similar to beliefs or associations you have in other areas of your life. These are areas which appear to have nothing to do with acting. They are things you do on a regular basis without thinking. These are habits. A habit is a learned pattern of behavior. You may have acquired habits that don’t support your desires or expectations to be an actor. There are good habits and there are bad habits. They both work the same way. If you do something a certain way, for a certain period of time, it becomes comfortable.
The process of habit may appear pretty much the same as the process of talent. The process for talent is knowledge to repetition until it becomes physically comfortable as it becomes muscle memory. It becomes physically comfortable when it can be done without thinking. The difference between a habit and a talent is the focus of the end result. Your talents have been designed and developed with purpose. A habit, on the other hand, just happen without thought of consequence.
A habit is not the result of discipline. And, as we know, discipline (use of time) is the fundamental need to create a talent. As for habit, the body works toward pleasure if left to its own devices. If it feels good then the repetition becomes easy and the result becomes self-gratifying, if not self-enhancing. The use of pain and pleasure guide your physical life. However, to achieve a talent you must make a choice to accept the discomfort the body will imagine is being experienced through discipline. With controlled actions you are moving away from habit and moving toward a goal that will support your professional desires.
Don't forget, the body on its quest for pleasure, left to its own control, will override logic, intelligence and common sense to repeat the feeling of a pleasure. This often results in the non-supportive habit.
You know when you are doing something that supports your career and your life. You also know when you are not.
What is it that allows you to accept these non-supportive actions (these habits) without working to disempower them? The answer to this question is simple. The application of that answer is not. It is, none the less, about choice. It’s about taking control of your comfort zones of habit and redesigning your objectives toward talents.
Getting the Job
Less than 2% of actors work enough to get insurance through their unions. There are many working actors and there are plenty of good jobs for them. There are many opportunities for the actor if you have positioned yourself in the right place with the right clarity of your product. In this business many actors have proven that they can do the job. Many have also proven that they have a fear of getting the job. There are also many actors in the storytelling process who may not have as many talents as others, but they have no fear of getting the job. Therefore, they work.
You can develop the talent for getting the job by eliminating the fear of getting the job. This is done with knowledge. There are some basic things you need to know to enhance your efforts at being more competitive. First, you need to know that you have every right to pursue a given acting job if you are not clear that your talents are up to the task. Secondly, regardless of the outcome of the audition, you must accept that you can’t fail because a ‘yes or no’ result is still fulfilling your responsibility to the odds, and the path by which talents are achieved.
Each person you meet may be instrumental in your quest for a successful professional acting career. Therefore, you must create the circumstance to meet as many as possible. Treat them with the appreciation and enthusiasm that you may well need to give them in the future. Use your energy in its performance mode. It’s a game, and the rules change based on the circumstance and the genre.
There are general rules that are consistent. The decision making person, the one in control of whether or not you get the job, is not your friend, not your buddy, not your equal, nor are they your enemy. This person is evaluating your type, your style, your believability, your adaptability to format, your ability to take direction, your emotional balance and the power of your personal energy. They evaluate this by how your audition affects their being. The more auditions you have the better you will get at demonstrating those abilities. Every audition allows repetition of your current knowledge. It also provides an opportunity for additional knowledge to be placed into repetition.
In your quest to achieve a talent and remove the fear of getting the job, the number of auditions will far outweigh the value of the project during your developmental stages. Until you are completely clear about the talents needed for major professional acting jobs, you are free to pursue as many acting auditions as possible, regardless of production level. It doesn't matter how small, how unprofessional or how tasteless the project. It’s not about taking the job; it’s about being offered the job. You must have the confidence to believe that you have the talents needed to support the job description for the auditon.
The best way to achieve the talents needed to get the auditions and to win the jobs is by increasing your knowledge of the tools needed and putting that knowledge into muscle memory by repetition. You do this with more auditons. Therefore, go to as many auditons as you can, regardless of the quality or potential of the project. At this stage its quantity, not quality that is your objective. You want to create the circumstances where you can be seen and evaluated leading to offers of opportunity.
Have a wonderful week.
I wish you well,
Russ
Monday, February 14, 2011
Control over Fear
Each of your talents reflects the control over a fear. Comfort for your creature comes from your understanding of what "the creature's" needs and motives are. Fear is manifested in powerful inner dialogue. You look at yourself as isolated and alone. Perhaps you even believe that the conversations you have with yourself are privileged information only to you. That is not true. Your conversations are with the universe and your ability to be correct in your thinking is a universal guarantee. Every time you use words of defeat, lack, unhappiness, despair, failure, loneliness, or loss the universe will go out of its way to grant you your personal assessment. The universe will make your thoughts come true without question of motivation or fairness. Negative thoughts are really the result of your creature badgering you for attention to defocus you from action and the result will be far more destructive than you imagine. Your doubts become requests and the self-prophecy is realized. Your thoughts of fear divert the flow of your life energy from your goals to be a successful professional actor. Negative inner dialogue will also permeate the other areas of your life. But you can use the subject of these conversations or internal dialogues to find out what you do fear. And, it is crucial that you recognize that your internal conversations of fear may be stopping your growth and progress.
Fear, by definition, is to consider or to expect with alarm. It is a strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. It is anxious concern. It is painful agitation in the presence or anticipation of danger. It is caused by your lack of knowledge or your lack of understanding as to motive or intent. It is controlled by you. From a practical purpose if the fear is a real and present danger, it gives you a chance to prepare to make defensive choices. But, if your fear is perceived or imagined it causes you to have thoughts of agitation and uncontrolled concern. If it is a fear from a real and present danger you wouldn’t be asking where it comes from. It would be isolated and removed.
Fear is controlled by you. Search out the source or reason for the agitation or feelings of anger. You do this by removing yourself from participating in your internal dialogue and begin to listen to what it is addressing. This will lead you to the subject of your fear. Once you recognize the source of a fear use this knowledge to disempower it by recognition, and use your physical repetition to Talent to disempower its ability to return. Fear can be replaced with the truth of its origin and recognizing the truth of a fears purpose. That truth of a fear's purpose is to keep your physical body in a fight-and-run position. Once you realize the reason you have a specific fear you can overcome it with knowledge and repetition.
There are many possible fears that can attach to our internal dialogue. The fears vary from person to person. Yet, all the fears have the same purpose. The purpose is to stop you from any action that could result in the flow of universal energy and a personal connection with “all that is”. A fear elevates to the level of physical control when it can take your focus away from your goals and your hopes for the future. It does this with your internal dialogue.
Fear, however, can be supportive when it is recognized for what it is and you know what it can do. Your fears are the path to your personal journey toward wisdom. The process of fear is part of life’s expectations. Fear makes you aware of the things you do not know. This lack of knowledge could keep you from growth. It can keep you from your desired destiny.
All fears are real even if they are imagined. The real fears are much easier to accept and confront because their source is evident. The imagined fears are deep seated and have burrowed into your being. They can be understood and overcome by translating internal dialogue (conversations) and interpreting your behavioral patterns.
Personal Belief System
Your personal belief system informs you how your actions reflect your desired beliefs. A desired belief is a belief that you want to have. It is a belief that supports your “best you” qualities. If you’re not moving in the direction you desire then your true beliefs may not be known to you. If you don’t have what you want then you really want what you have. Therefore, your actions are based on your true beliefs not your desired beliefs. Your true beliefs may support your poor me self because they are fear beliefs. These illogical beliefs ultimately disempower you. They support your need to give up. Your true beliefs work to undermine your desired beliefs in logic and cosmic energy. This happens through fear.
You can’t take on fear itself because fear is a concept but, anything that fear uses has a name. Each one of these “knowledge deficiencies” can be interpreted and challenged. You have accepted certain beliefs or made certain associations to the different areas of the acting business. You have probably unconsciously cross-referenced these beliefs and associations to all the Big 7 areas of your life. (Emotional Life, Financial Life, Intellectual Life, Physical Life, Personal Life, Professional Life and Spiritual Life.) Remember, the universal flow of energy responds to your true beliefs, not your desired beliefs. If you can be honest with yourself, you can learn to accept that your true beliefs are far more powerful than your desired beliefs.
Ironically, a number of your true beliefs may be rooted in others’ truths. Many of your true beliefs have been inherited from others with whom you may not share philosophical or social views. It is difficult to accept but your true beliefs are reflected in your use of actual time, energy and personal resources. In fact, many of your negative views or judgments may reflect those of your parents or friends or anyone who was responsible for your developmental years.
Life is a series of obstacles. Wisdom comes from being able to face these obstacles and move on. Your motivation level is directly affected by your associations with pain and pleasure. As a result, it is your true beliefs that are guiding your actions. It is as true of this business as well as the other areas of your life. You may have associated pain to getting an agent. You may have associated pain to getting a union card. You may have associated pain to an audition. If you have associated pain to these things nothing is going to change until you change your associations.
If your true belief is ‘my efforts are not worth it,’ you can understand why you have a lack of motivation. You may find that TV, the movies, friends and the internet occupy your time. Therefore, there is no time for career action. Perhaps your motivational level is effectively a pattern of low expectations or a belief in your limited ability to create action. If this is true, your major problem may not lie in your acting circumstance. It may lie in your lack of discipline.
Take the time this week to listen to your internal dialogue and see what excuses are being used to justify your frustrations. Don't let "the now" be occupied with fears and mistakes of the past. Discover the specific fears that keep you locked from the joy of being.
Have a wonderful day.
I wish you well.
Russ
Each of your talents reflects the control over a fear. Comfort for your creature comes from your understanding of what "the creature's" needs and motives are. Fear is manifested in powerful inner dialogue. You look at yourself as isolated and alone. Perhaps you even believe that the conversations you have with yourself are privileged information only to you. That is not true. Your conversations are with the universe and your ability to be correct in your thinking is a universal guarantee. Every time you use words of defeat, lack, unhappiness, despair, failure, loneliness, or loss the universe will go out of its way to grant you your personal assessment. The universe will make your thoughts come true without question of motivation or fairness. Negative thoughts are really the result of your creature badgering you for attention to defocus you from action and the result will be far more destructive than you imagine. Your doubts become requests and the self-prophecy is realized. Your thoughts of fear divert the flow of your life energy from your goals to be a successful professional actor. Negative inner dialogue will also permeate the other areas of your life. But you can use the subject of these conversations or internal dialogues to find out what you do fear. And, it is crucial that you recognize that your internal conversations of fear may be stopping your growth and progress.
Fear, by definition, is to consider or to expect with alarm. It is a strong emotion caused by anticipation or awareness of danger. It is anxious concern. It is painful agitation in the presence or anticipation of danger. It is caused by your lack of knowledge or your lack of understanding as to motive or intent. It is controlled by you. From a practical purpose if the fear is a real and present danger, it gives you a chance to prepare to make defensive choices. But, if your fear is perceived or imagined it causes you to have thoughts of agitation and uncontrolled concern. If it is a fear from a real and present danger you wouldn’t be asking where it comes from. It would be isolated and removed.
Fear is controlled by you. Search out the source or reason for the agitation or feelings of anger. You do this by removing yourself from participating in your internal dialogue and begin to listen to what it is addressing. This will lead you to the subject of your fear. Once you recognize the source of a fear use this knowledge to disempower it by recognition, and use your physical repetition to Talent to disempower its ability to return. Fear can be replaced with the truth of its origin and recognizing the truth of a fears purpose. That truth of a fear's purpose is to keep your physical body in a fight-and-run position. Once you realize the reason you have a specific fear you can overcome it with knowledge and repetition.
There are many possible fears that can attach to our internal dialogue. The fears vary from person to person. Yet, all the fears have the same purpose. The purpose is to stop you from any action that could result in the flow of universal energy and a personal connection with “all that is”. A fear elevates to the level of physical control when it can take your focus away from your goals and your hopes for the future. It does this with your internal dialogue.
Fear, however, can be supportive when it is recognized for what it is and you know what it can do. Your fears are the path to your personal journey toward wisdom. The process of fear is part of life’s expectations. Fear makes you aware of the things you do not know. This lack of knowledge could keep you from growth. It can keep you from your desired destiny.
All fears are real even if they are imagined. The real fears are much easier to accept and confront because their source is evident. The imagined fears are deep seated and have burrowed into your being. They can be understood and overcome by translating internal dialogue (conversations) and interpreting your behavioral patterns.
Personal Belief System
Your personal belief system informs you how your actions reflect your desired beliefs. A desired belief is a belief that you want to have. It is a belief that supports your “best you” qualities. If you’re not moving in the direction you desire then your true beliefs may not be known to you. If you don’t have what you want then you really want what you have. Therefore, your actions are based on your true beliefs not your desired beliefs. Your true beliefs may support your poor me self because they are fear beliefs. These illogical beliefs ultimately disempower you. They support your need to give up. Your true beliefs work to undermine your desired beliefs in logic and cosmic energy. This happens through fear.
You can’t take on fear itself because fear is a concept but, anything that fear uses has a name. Each one of these “knowledge deficiencies” can be interpreted and challenged. You have accepted certain beliefs or made certain associations to the different areas of the acting business. You have probably unconsciously cross-referenced these beliefs and associations to all the Big 7 areas of your life. (Emotional Life, Financial Life, Intellectual Life, Physical Life, Personal Life, Professional Life and Spiritual Life.) Remember, the universal flow of energy responds to your true beliefs, not your desired beliefs. If you can be honest with yourself, you can learn to accept that your true beliefs are far more powerful than your desired beliefs.
Ironically, a number of your true beliefs may be rooted in others’ truths. Many of your true beliefs have been inherited from others with whom you may not share philosophical or social views. It is difficult to accept but your true beliefs are reflected in your use of actual time, energy and personal resources. In fact, many of your negative views or judgments may reflect those of your parents or friends or anyone who was responsible for your developmental years.
Life is a series of obstacles. Wisdom comes from being able to face these obstacles and move on. Your motivation level is directly affected by your associations with pain and pleasure. As a result, it is your true beliefs that are guiding your actions. It is as true of this business as well as the other areas of your life. You may have associated pain to getting an agent. You may have associated pain to getting a union card. You may have associated pain to an audition. If you have associated pain to these things nothing is going to change until you change your associations.
If your true belief is ‘my efforts are not worth it,’ you can understand why you have a lack of motivation. You may find that TV, the movies, friends and the internet occupy your time. Therefore, there is no time for career action. Perhaps your motivational level is effectively a pattern of low expectations or a belief in your limited ability to create action. If this is true, your major problem may not lie in your acting circumstance. It may lie in your lack of discipline.
Take the time this week to listen to your internal dialogue and see what excuses are being used to justify your frustrations. Don't let "the now" be occupied with fears and mistakes of the past. Discover the specific fears that keep you locked from the joy of being.
Have a wonderful day.
I wish you well.
Russ
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Process and Factor of Fear
It is important to take actions based on knowledge. Through repetition that knowledge is then turned into talent. The formula for Talent is knowledge + physical repetition. This is a physiological process that is only effective if you understand it and take advantage of it. You should practice the process of talent on a daily basis with the talents that you have defined from a physical position. If you are clear about your product, clear about your package, clear about your personal position of play, and clear about the odds being in your favor, then you have the right equation. However, many people who claim to want an acting career, get virtually nowhere because they are missing part of the equation. They are avoiding something and the answer is always the same. It is fear. It may be fear of success, fear of failure, fear of exposure, or fear of denial. But, they all have one thing in common. It is fear. Therefore, the process of fear needs to be addressed and understood.
Fear is the opposite of talent and it can be eliminated the same way talent can be achieved… knowledge plus physical repetition. Regardless of what you fear it can still be eliminated once it’s acknowledged. This is something your creature is instinctively trying to avoid. As you know, your creature will do anything to keep you from achieving your goals and acknowledging the fears that are standing in the way of your actions. The creature maintains the ability to cause physical discomfort whenever you begin the process of control. The discomfort comes from the duality of purpose between the physical body and the spiritual self. They each have an agenda for your life energy, which you have been entrusted with.
The obstacles in your life are empowered by your perception. Your perception is either controlled by your creature’s fight or flight survival agenda or by your spiritual need to explore the consequences of your life choices. Your spiritual energy empowers you through the use of positive perceptions and allows for the creation of actions toward resolve. However, if you’re creating pain by undermining your path to be a successful professional actor, you need to acknowledge that your creature’s apparent instinctive needs are at work. Fear is in your way. There is no doubt about it. The excuse for not being where you want to be could be based on fear. Fears may manifest themselves differently but, in truth, they are all the same. It may be difficult to realize that the things standing in the way to your becoming a professional actor are the things you do to yourself. And, these things are supported by the fears that you harbor. It could be your lack of action. It could be your refusal to take stock of your talents. It could be your avoidance of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your abilities in relation to the competitive market. Your fears, once recognized however, can be made powerful and competitive.
In order to create actions that lead to positive results, you need to also understand what actions will work based on the business itself. One reason you may have difficulty in creating effective actions is the fear of what the business expects of you. There is a belief that anyone can act because it appears to require no special training. This myth allows many aspiring actors to avoid seriously evaluating their abilities. On the other hand, many believe that making it requires luck, of which, the majority do not believe they have. The irony is that they are correct because luck can only happen when preparation meets opportunity. If the preparation is not there due to in-action, then the opportunity would be missed even if it appeared.
Your life is also controlled by the meaning you give to a situation. Bitterness is a powerful meaning to associate with getting an agent, securing a union card, making the right connections. The bitterness comes from fear. The part of you that is the creature will take advantage of any emotion that seems to bring out the worst in you. That creature is your constant companion, your mate for life. It is that part of you that, during the course of your growth and development, has collected fears in order to maintain the safety and supposed well being of your vessel, your physical body. You may have intellectually matured. You may have made efforts to become emotionally healthy. Meanwhile, this creature continues to respond on an emotional and childlike level.
Your emotional system is at the creature’s disposal. It controls the keys to the buttons that, once pushed, result in your responses based on fear. Changing this automatic system requires acknowledging and becoming conscious that this creature exists in you. Ironically, it has no desire to hurt you. How could it? It is you. Talent is the only sure-fire way to give your creature a sense of comfort so it trusts that you will protect his or her being. In Talent the creature no longer feels a need to protect you!
Address those things in your life that make you angry. Pay attention to your internal dialogue. The things you fear are topics of that internal dialogue. Have a wonderfu week. Enjoy the journey.
I wish you well.
Russ
It is important to take actions based on knowledge. Through repetition that knowledge is then turned into talent. The formula for Talent is knowledge + physical repetition. This is a physiological process that is only effective if you understand it and take advantage of it. You should practice the process of talent on a daily basis with the talents that you have defined from a physical position. If you are clear about your product, clear about your package, clear about your personal position of play, and clear about the odds being in your favor, then you have the right equation. However, many people who claim to want an acting career, get virtually nowhere because they are missing part of the equation. They are avoiding something and the answer is always the same. It is fear. It may be fear of success, fear of failure, fear of exposure, or fear of denial. But, they all have one thing in common. It is fear. Therefore, the process of fear needs to be addressed and understood.
Fear is the opposite of talent and it can be eliminated the same way talent can be achieved… knowledge plus physical repetition. Regardless of what you fear it can still be eliminated once it’s acknowledged. This is something your creature is instinctively trying to avoid. As you know, your creature will do anything to keep you from achieving your goals and acknowledging the fears that are standing in the way of your actions. The creature maintains the ability to cause physical discomfort whenever you begin the process of control. The discomfort comes from the duality of purpose between the physical body and the spiritual self. They each have an agenda for your life energy, which you have been entrusted with.
The obstacles in your life are empowered by your perception. Your perception is either controlled by your creature’s fight or flight survival agenda or by your spiritual need to explore the consequences of your life choices. Your spiritual energy empowers you through the use of positive perceptions and allows for the creation of actions toward resolve. However, if you’re creating pain by undermining your path to be a successful professional actor, you need to acknowledge that your creature’s apparent instinctive needs are at work. Fear is in your way. There is no doubt about it. The excuse for not being where you want to be could be based on fear. Fears may manifest themselves differently but, in truth, they are all the same. It may be difficult to realize that the things standing in the way to your becoming a professional actor are the things you do to yourself. And, these things are supported by the fears that you harbor. It could be your lack of action. It could be your refusal to take stock of your talents. It could be your avoidance of evaluating the strengths and weaknesses of your abilities in relation to the competitive market. Your fears, once recognized however, can be made powerful and competitive.
In order to create actions that lead to positive results, you need to also understand what actions will work based on the business itself. One reason you may have difficulty in creating effective actions is the fear of what the business expects of you. There is a belief that anyone can act because it appears to require no special training. This myth allows many aspiring actors to avoid seriously evaluating their abilities. On the other hand, many believe that making it requires luck, of which, the majority do not believe they have. The irony is that they are correct because luck can only happen when preparation meets opportunity. If the preparation is not there due to in-action, then the opportunity would be missed even if it appeared.
Your life is also controlled by the meaning you give to a situation. Bitterness is a powerful meaning to associate with getting an agent, securing a union card, making the right connections. The bitterness comes from fear. The part of you that is the creature will take advantage of any emotion that seems to bring out the worst in you. That creature is your constant companion, your mate for life. It is that part of you that, during the course of your growth and development, has collected fears in order to maintain the safety and supposed well being of your vessel, your physical body. You may have intellectually matured. You may have made efforts to become emotionally healthy. Meanwhile, this creature continues to respond on an emotional and childlike level.
Your emotional system is at the creature’s disposal. It controls the keys to the buttons that, once pushed, result in your responses based on fear. Changing this automatic system requires acknowledging and becoming conscious that this creature exists in you. Ironically, it has no desire to hurt you. How could it? It is you. Talent is the only sure-fire way to give your creature a sense of comfort so it trusts that you will protect his or her being. In Talent the creature no longer feels a need to protect you!
Address those things in your life that make you angry. Pay attention to your internal dialogue. The things you fear are topics of that internal dialogue. Have a wonderfu week. Enjoy the journey.
I wish you well.
Russ
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