Give Your Destiny Time to Find You

Weekly wisdom to level up your creative life in 3 minutes, for free.

A SHORT STORY

The other day, I was asked in an interview, "What is some advice you wish you had received while in your twenties?"

I answered: "Give your destiny time to find you."

Back when I was in school, artists were often pigeonholed into specific roles – you were either an actor or a director. It was rare to be both. So, as I navigated through much of my twenties, being an actor, a humanitarian, a scholar, an entrepreneur, and a teacher, it seemed like I was all over the map. There was a part of me that spent a lot of time reflecting and worrying about that.

What I didn't know then was that I was building a unique skillset as a multi-disciplinary artist, one that would eventually be embraced as digital technologies advanced.

And so, as I look toward the next twenty years, I want to continue to embrace the idea that the greatest creative challenge is the struggle to be the architect of your own life.

As the researcher Robert Sapolsky once wrote, "It's the happiness of pursuit, not the pursuit of happiness."

So, I say this now to myself and to you as a gentle reminder: be patient, do not compromise, and give your destiny time to find you.

What is some advice you wish you had received while in your twenties? How can you live that advice today?

A CREATIVE TOOL

I’m currently teaching Fundamentals of Acting as part of the Patrick Page Studio, and having an incredible time!

One of the many tools we teach in the studio is the importance of staying in the present moment. The other day I found myself sharing a piece of advice I once read from the great actor Mark Rylance that may be of use to you this week.

He said that in response to feeling resistance or doubt he would simply say to himself - “Come to your senses, Mark.”

“Stop thinking and smell the air. Taste whatever you’re tasting. Listen and look at the other actors. It immediately moves you into something much larger than your own fears or expectations.”

A PIECE OF ART

“East Coker” by TS Eliot

I said to my soul, be still, and wait without hope
For hope would be hope for the wrong thing; wait without love,
For love would be love of the wrong thing; there is yet faith
But the faith and the love and the hope are all in the waiting.
Wait without thought, for you are not ready for thought:
So the darkness shall be the light, and the stillness the dancing.

Grateful,

Michael