I don’t know about those of you reading this, but I feel we’re constantly being bombarded with having to get somewhere, or having to achieve something, the focus always being on the end goal, or the destination. Whilst I don’t necessarily think of this as a bad thing, I do have a little nit-pick with it – Why the rush to get to the finish line?
As a trained actor, and indeed teacher of acting pedagogies, one of the most crucial skills a student can develop is awareness. Awareness of surrounding, awareness of others, awareness of self, but especially awareness of process.
In the work I do with students, and indeed in my own practice, process is key. If I had a pound for every time I said the word ‘process’ I’d be sitting on a beach somewhere, drinking cocktails and probably still pondering. Yet there is a reason for that ‘hammering home’ as I like to call it.
I consider process to be guided by five key questions,
- What it is you’re doing,
- Why you’re doing it,
- What you observe/notice about yourself, acknowledging any changes here.
- Why is this experience useful (or indeed not!) to you in general relating to the development of your practice?
- How does this contribute to achieving what it is you’ve set out to achieve?
Firstly, I’ll contextualise this to acting, then show how it can be applied more generally to the journeys you take in your own life.
Context: I have a character speech (monologue) to prepare. Using the process framework, the answers would be something akin to,
- To prepare my monologue I’m going to carry out the following steps. This is the ‘what I’m doing.’
- Read the play it’s from
- Research the social, historical, and cultural contexts of the time.
- Learn about the playwright’s intentions for the play.
- Textually analyse the speech – my own interpretation
- Use key practitioner approaches in textual analysis and understanding of character objectives, obstacles, and actions, E.g., Stanislavski, Hagan, Addler, Houseman etc. (I’m not going to go into detail here as it’s not wholly relevant to the point I’m attempting to make).
- Start to physically rehearse. This section of the process is massive but involves things like voice, characterisation, movement, use of space, blocking, world building etc.
- Once lines are learned, I can then explore even more until the point I’m performance ready, but also have done the speech in many ways, that if I was asked to change the way I’d perform by the audition panel, I could.
This is a VERY simplified breakdown of preparing one speech. The time it would take would vary dependent of additional factors, but for now, it gives you an idea.
Going on to question 2 – the why am I doing this, also interpreted as why is this the best course of action? Response: because based on my knowledge and experience, for me to prepare the monologue to the standard it needs to be, these are the steps engrained in my practice. It’s my actor’s toolkit. It is a successful process that encourages successful outcomes.
Question 3 – the changes are observed throughout the process, so having moments when you check in with yourself and to encourage reflective thinking is very useful. Not only that, but it also keeps you focused on continual improvement.
For my fictional response to question 4, why is this experience useful, it could be about improving opportunities, building a repertoire, getting hired for a job, or even rekindling skills, or reigniting passion etc. It’s about the long-term benefits or growth or improvement that happens beyond achieving the goal.
Finally question 5, the emphasis here is about the relationship between journey and destination, process, and performance. ‘ How does this contribute to achieving what it is you’ve set out to achieve?’ They are intrinsically interlinked.
Here are some of the main reasons why these questions are so valuable. If you can’t articulate what it is you’ve done up to a certain point or articulate how you got to where you did, how can you a) learn from it b) repeat it (if successful) and c) reflect on it c) That is why I hark on about process to the students. It’s all about progression and development.
So, let’s take a moment to think about your current circumstances. Are you working towards any goals? Are you travelling (physically, emotionally, spiritually, metaphorically etc) to a destination? If so, how about instead of focusing on that end point, we embrace the steps taken on the journey.
It may be that it is a brand-new goal, something you’ve never done before, if that’s the case you’ll likely draw on past experience to help you. This will be down to you as the individual to figure out what works best – it might be broad stroke bullet points or small bites-sized chunks!
What are the steps you’re going to take to achieve the vision?
Using the process framework, think about how you can apply it to your circumstance. Take that destination (or goal!) and use that as your starting point.
- What can you do to achieve the goal? What steps are you going to take in the journey?
- Why you’re doing it? Why are you taking these steps, and consider why you want to achieve the goal or reach the destination in the first place?
- What do you observe/notice about yourself, acknowledging any changes here, from when you start the journey, when you’re in the middle, and once you reach the destination? You may want to consider things like your mood, your interactions, and your attitude and behaviour. Is anything changing?
- Why is this journey useful (or indeed not!) to you more generally relating to your personal and/or professional development?
- How does this (the reflective process) contribute to achieving what it is you’ve set out to achieve?
Try it out. The destination or goal doesn’t have to be massive and far aware, and scary to even think about let alone achieve. You are in control. So, take those first steps at a slow pace. Slow progress is still progress.
I’d love to hear how you get on!
As the late American psychologist Carl Rogers said ‘The good life is the process, not a state of being. It is a direction and not a destination.’
This has been a SmartPonders.
Thanks for reading.
Steph X
SmartPonders 