Focus

​MID-MONTH MOTIVATION
​Uplifting mid-month stories to keep us going all month long

Water and Light

Ah, the sound of a babbling brook, relaxing, quiet, soothing.  Water always takes the path of least resistance when it flows, looking for the low laying land.  It always flows downhill (well in most cases at least, www.livescience.com/58416-can-water-naturally-flow-uphill.html).  Light in a similar way only shines through where there is nothing blocking it's path.

In both cases, whatever is in the way causes the water to flow around and the light to fail to get through to the other side.

 But that is not the end of the story.  Have you ever seen fabric left out in the sun for a long time where the colors are bleached out?  How about the Grand Canyon?  It may not seem like the light or the water is winning, but given enough time and persistence, the water and the light will slowly start to break through the barriers.

Now, this alone is wise advice to anyone striving towards a hard goal.  "Keep on and be persistent and you will make strides toward your goal."  Wise advice we can all live by, but may I propose a different strategy.  Focus.

Take both water and light, and focus them into a concentrated "beam" and instead of taking years to cut through the barriers, you can cut through amazing things very quickly.  Water, when concentrated is used to cut through steel, and we all know the power that light concentrated has (can you say Laser).  Two things we normally think of as pretty harmless used to cut through some of the hardest materials we make.  That is the power of focus.

I recently hired Gail Rastorfer of www.artistic-strategies.com/ to help me better focus this years efforts in my acting goals.  Though I have little to complain about from the last 15 months, my efforts have been brute force (submit for everything and anything I see posted that I can qualify for).  Though that has worked, this year my goal is to be much more proactive in my creative life and start building real relationships with the artistic community in Chicago so we can create amazing art together. 

Are you "stuck" or feel like you are just floating along, bumping off the rocks in your path?  Do you feel like the only way in is to crawl through a window?  If so, consider your focus.  The narrower you make it, the more effective you will be at breaking through the barriers that stand between you and your destination.

If you want some help better understanding who you are, where you are going and getting more specific about your goals this year, consider contacting with Gail about some one-on-one time.  Tell her Darryn sent you (I don''t get anything from that, just the knowledge it will put a smile on my friend's face).  You will learn so much from her and her experience.  Trust me.  You will not regret it.