Life Purpose Insight - When It's Going Well..

[The White Belt]

Only when it's going well do I seem to consider it to be a LP potential.

I've been acting for years but began to question if it's really for me.

That's when I began the LP course. So I was doing the odd acting class whilst doing the LP course and looking through some

other options. I narrowed my options to writing, photography, and acting.

Tonight I went to an acting class, and told myself it would be the last one, and I would probably drop it as a potential LP.

But then this happened; I worked through my fear of acting in front of others really well, I got in flow state whilst acting, 

and the others clapped after my performance and gave me high praise.

So i've come out all elated, my mood is boosted, the world looks beautiful and now i'm considering it as one of the highest contenders.

I think possibly it was always my LP, but I hit a nasty plateau that took all of my confidence and made it painful to act.

 

I dunno what to make of this. It seems just because it went well it is now in the spotlight of my mind. 

This is gonna cause problems down the line, because i'll get into it, then photography or writing is gonna take over my priority 

when I hit a peak experience during one of them!! Even if they are just gonna be hobbies.

 

Ehh, dunno. Advice?

[Visitor]

Fear of failure and fear of success go hand in hand.

Fear of failure stops a person from attempting anything for fear of being judged as not being successful.  

Fear of success stops a person from attempting anything for fear of added responsibility (with being successful) which adds fuel to the fear of failure.

It can be a vicious cycle that can stop you from changing for the better. 

Facing fears, like you did when you was about to do your last act proved that things can change. Use that experience as a reference of 'hope' that will help you to face other fears.

Life is full of acceptances, accept your fear, accept failures, accept successes, accept responsibilities, accept change in LP, accept everything and all will work out better than you could have expected, because you didn't expect anything.

[The White Belt]

@Visitor Yes I think I have a fear of success. It's something to think about. I often get stupid thoughts like 'But, but, if i'm a busy actor, how will I have time to meditate'. Really dumb objections. I think I shy away from acting because it has TONS of resistance that comes with it when I think about it. Like ridiculous resistance. Convincing too. Meh

[Leo Gura]

@The White Belt That's definitely a good clue. Your first clues will not be crystal clear because you suck, so you do have to mentally adjust for that fact. There will be unnecessary fear and doubt clogging up your clarity of vision.

That said, also be careful about the praise/validation part. Egos love validation, so you cannot rely on that. It's also completely unsuitable for fueling the mastery process of anything.

Instead of basking in the validation, ask yourself, "Do I really love this craft? Do I want to go deep in learning the craft of acting? Do I really enjoy it? Do I consider it beautiful in itself even without money or validation?"

If YES! then that's a very strong positive clue.

[The White Belt]

2 minutes ago, Leo Gura said:

In stead of basking in the validation, ask yourself, "Do I really love this craft? Do I want to go deep in learning the craft of acting? Do I really enjoy it? Do I consider it beautiful in itself even without money or validation?"

It's hard to answer these questions, because the suffering I feel as a result of limiting beliefs, conditioning, confidence issues makes it hard to love it per se. Yet something has brought me back to these classes all these years. 

[Leo Gura]

@The White Belt Yes, that's tricky. Requires real vision, intuition, and contemplation to get clear about that.

This is where reprogramming your subconscious mind comes in handy.

Just as a thought-experiment, you could imagine all your fears and limiting beliefs disappear for a moment. Imagine you couldn't fail. What would you pursue in life?

Go through and answer the list of life purpose questions from the course. There's like over 50 of them there. Set your fears aside for now. We don't care what you fear. We care what you WANT.

[David1]

14 hours ago, Leo Gura said:

That said, also be careful about the praise/validation part. Egos love validation, so you cannot rely on that. It's also completely unsuitable for fueling the mastery process of anything.

Egos love validation alright. The trick is not to get lost in ego, but to use it as a tool. Validation can be used to create a positive feedback loop, to reinforce a positive belief. "I'm good at acting" ==> validation ==> "see, i'm really good at it" ==> more motivation, improved self image etc. ==> better acting skills. But always remember what you are doing. It is just a belief, don't let it define you as a person. Wear it as a coat that you can lay off at any time so to speak.

Edited May 30, 2017 by David1

[The White Belt]

@David1 True man. The validation was like about, 'ooh look at me', and more about, 'hey, this is possible for me to do'

@Leo Gura Thanks. That thought experiment helps a lot actually. I think I would come closer to loving it if I wasn't dwelling on my failure, because when I began acting I really did love it! It's all I used to think about. It's just after taking a few ego bruises that I started to doubt this. 

[Nahm]

@The White Belt You're proceeding without doing the daily practices and it's a lot of up's and down's. Now you know why people do daily rituals. Do them. 

[The White Belt]

4 hours ago, Nahm said:

@The White Belt You're proceeding without doing the daily practices and it's a lot of up's and down's. 

What do you mean by proceeding without doing the daily practices? What daily practices? Acting related ones? 

[Nahm]

@The White Belt you are so caught up in being you that you are opperating from that perspective.    

meditate every morning for at least 20 mins   let every thought go. eventually, you will see that you are not you, and your reactions will seem distant. you will undergo the change from being reactional to creating. this is the difference in pusuit, especially acting