The most powerful influence over our feelings, thoughts and actions are our own words: the things that voice in our head says to us. We actors often find ourselves in our heads, stressed, overthinking and worrying… usually about things that are out of our control.
Relax though, you’re not alone. We’re all guilty – actors and non-actors alike. We all have things in our lives that concern us and worry us. We can worry about world peace, worry about Trump or worry about whether the casting director (CD) liked us in that audition we just did. Sometimes our worries become all-consuming: we wake in the middle of the night, find it hard to get to sleep or simply begin to question our decision to be an actor. However, usually, the thing that we focus on and put our energy into, is the thing that will grow.
If we focus on our concerns and fears, there is a good chance that they will grow and become overwhelming or paralysing. In other words, instead of reacting to, or worrying about conditions over which we have little or no control (such as whether or not our audition was good), we can instead focus time and energy on things we can control and influence. One of the simplest yet powerful things we can influence, is the language in our heads.
A legend of the world of management and business is Steven Covey. He wrote The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People (1989). The are some amazing insights for actors in his book (especially habit seven, if you’re someone who could improve your personal time management for example). Habit one, of the Seven Habits, is all about recognising what you can control
and what you can’t.
Covey argues that when we recognise concerns and worries bubbling up, we should stop and ask ourselves whether it’s something we can influence. If we realise we can’t, that it’s out of our control, then ask “why am I putting so much energy into that?”. Covey suggests instead that we invest our energy into things that we can control.