Sustainability

Continuing last week's entry on being RELENTLESS, I thought SUSTAINABILITY was also a good word to keep in mind.   As an actor, producer, or any type of business that requires "craft" this paragraph is well worth reading.  I get an enewsmagazine called Fear.less.  

This paragraph from their recent edition really worked for me and I hope it will for you too!


"Sustainability over lightning-fast. I started in the online world five years ago and cringed at who I thought I'd have to become - constantly engaged, with roadrunner stamina. I wanted to keep up, but I didn't think I could. In trying to exist here however, I saw I had a combination of presence and quiet that actually worked for my audience. I sustained and did so successfully. I realized I didn't want speed, after all. What I really wanted was sustainability - to set my own pace, live with ease, and lay a solid foundation. This desire outgrew all the rest and I started to see myself as a craftsman, wanting to build with timelessness, quality. Systems became beautiful, not tedious. An architect knows each stone contributes to the masterpiece as much as the final stone laid. His work stands on years of toil. He has respect for the process, for the time it takes to build something magnificent. I architect my life and since I'm building something magnificent, I want to have respect for the process. This is the first time I've ever thought this way."


As a final note from me, it's so tempting to want it yesterday.  I KNOW! I do.  But that is when you use fun cliches like "Rome wasn't built in a day".  In a fast paced-video game-MTV-Reality show world we see ideas presented at a fast pace.  Think about this though, the ideas that started MTV, video games, and some shows, took time to figure out and work through and develop.  

So:  ACTORS- find a way to pay your bills that allows you to continue developing your craft and to stick with it until you are where you want to be with your career.  Don't just give it five years. THEATRES- ask yourselves how you can think in much larger terms about how you will enroll those in the community intimately with your mission. Not just sell tickets to your shows. 

And then develop a long term plan to get there.  Patiently and thoroughly working a bit each day. It's funny.  The Internet seems so fast and it's tempting to think that the process for excellence has sped up as well.  It hasn't.