Take Your Time

Sometimes

I get pretty damn scared when I don’t have acting work 

Familiar thoughts tend to raise their head again 

Will I ever work again?

Does anybody want me?

Am I actually good at this thing I’ve been working so hard at?

Have people worked out that I’m a complete fraud?

Can everybody else see that I don’t have any idea what I’m doing?

Am I going to wake up after dedicating decades of my life to something and realise that it was all a waste of time?

Wow

Give it an inch

And my imagination will take a mile!

Okay

Let’s not give my imagination permission to run away here

Curious 

If I zoom out in this moment

And look at those sentences

I notice something

In the decades I’ve spent researching, reading and listening

I know

That I’m not alone

I know

Not only do my friends and colleagues share similar thoughts and feelings

But my heroes do too!

I remember a time

Back in the drama school days

When Al Pacino came to have a chat to us wee graduates

One of my best friends 

(Who was an insane Al Pacino fan)

Asked him 

“There was a time 

After you had done your first few films

When you didn’t work for two years

If you could go back now

What advice would you offer to that young version of yourself during that down time?”

Al Pacino took a long look at my friend

Breathed deep

Smiled 

And said

“I would rest my hand on his shoulder and say:

It’s okay,

You will get laid”

I love this

And I think Al is talking about one of the most important fundamentals someone can develop in their work

Let me explain 

I have been incredibly lucky to be on set with some extraordinary actors

Dicaprio, Mcguire, Green, Mulligan, Egerton, Gibson, Garfield bla bla bla  (name dropsss)

And there is something I have noticed in all of them

They do it slower

What do I mean by slower?

They take their time

They are willing to allow more time for themselves to achieve things they desire deeply

Not only have I noticed this across top actors

But it’s there all across the performance world too

Look at anyone who is at the top of their field

They give better work by going slower

Tennis for example 

The difference between good professional players and the stand-out champions of the game?

It's proven that champions take just a little bit more time to fully recover between points

They ask for the towel to rub down, even if not strictly necessary, or take a few seconds extra on ball selection

This energy management or reset allows them to maintain performance in a longer match and leads to a method for deep recovery between points

Point is… the best take longer to do things they deem important 

Athletes, CEO’s, Artists…

They slow down their work in order to give more

(Even if just by a small percentage)

As I’m typing this I just noticed the amazon delivery guy in my street

He has thrown something in a mail box, rushed out of the street, only to return two minutes later to another mail box a few houses down

Literally three times!

If he was to slow down

Take 10 seconds to look at the black swan floating in the lagoon 

Take 7 seconds to smell the lingering scent of fresh fallen rain

Take 20 seconds to look at his next few deliveries

He could go for a slow walk, make 3 deliveries in 4 minutes and give himself an extra ten to get to his next suburb 

But what about time?

Time waits for no one!

Only so many hours in the day right!?

Push push push

Rush rush rush

Must achieve this goal but that time otherwise I’m a failure!

Yup

Fear causes me to rush

To push

To use force

This equals tension

And tension equals shoulding

So I end up doing what I “should” do

Saying what I “should” say

Typing what I “should” type

But what I know

Is that I, Michael

Like every other individual on this earth

Have my very own timezone

A timezone that is completely unique to me

It’s Michael Sheasby’s time zone

My body knows how to breathe, how to walk, how to move at it’s own harmonious pace

A pace that happens when I’m not shoulding out of fear

When I’m not trying to please others

When I’m not trying to achieve things by a certain time or a particular age 

Mmm 

So

How can I make this more doable?

More practical?

Here’s some ideas

When noticing you’re walking at a pace which is not yours

When rushing in traffic

When rushing across the pedestrian crossing

When ordering coffee

When standing up in acting class to do your scene

When in between takes on set during your close up

When in between takes in the casting room

When giving yourself a deadline to achieve a particular goal by a particular time

When having a difficult conversation...

Stop

Take a breath

Bring it back to your own timezone

Listen to your body

Let it lead

The body knows 

Millions of years of evolution, right there, ready to take care of you

What’s my point?

Take your time

Give yourself permission to be in your timezone 

Hope this helps

X