The Great Acting Blog: “Honesty + Clarity = Learning And Progress”

The Great Acting Blog: “Honesty + Clarity = Learning And Progress”

In order to progress in our work we must be able to learn from experience, that is; we do something, then we look at what we’ve done, keep what we like, get rid of what we don’t like, and make the necessary changes for next time. In order to learn from experience however, we’ve got to be honest with ourselves. Pretending to be honest is no good, neither is trying to be honest. The honesty needed can only be gained through clarity of thought. Blustering around the place, “working hard”, being overly busy, these are all ways to create distraction, of scrambling the mind so that clarity can never be arrived at. Without clear thinking, our capacity to learn from experience is impaired.

It’s an awkward truth, but some intentionally mire themselves in the circular hell of making the same mistakes over and over again. Often, this is a prelude to quitting, convincing themselves that it is all too difficult. Perhaps they have come as far as they wanted to, but instead of admitting it, they set themselves up for a fall. Others refuse the clarity because they are afraid of what they might see and so deliberately muddy the waters (despite their protestations). This is all a question of not being honest with ourselves.

For those who want to keep going ever further, learning from experience is crucial, honesty and clarity must be attained and maintained in order to do that.

 

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