The Great Acting Blog: “Notes On The Stories We Tell”

The Great Acting Blog: “Notes On The Stories We Tell”

While researching an educational product for filmmakers I’m working on, I stumbled upon this video interview with Tony Robbins. He talks about how the stories we tell ourselves about our lives impact what we do, and if we change our stories then we can change our lives. I think it’s a very useful document for anyone stuck in a rut or working out how to accomplish something new, but I also think it has potential implications for our craft: namely, active listening and the story we tell ourselves about our character in the script, and how that can affect how we play it.

It’s a fascinating 18 minutes, but if you haven’t got time to hit the link and watch it, I’ve extrapolated the key points below.

– everyone has a fear, the fear that we’re not enough.

– the drive for success is bound up in the notion of being so successful that we’ll be enough regardless of what someone else does to us.

– people need to realise there is no security in life, there’s only what you can contribute, there’s only what you can create.

– he says; “change your story, change your life”. Your story becomes a shaper of all your perceptions and what you’ll do.

– if we can go back and re-claim who we are today instead of living an old story, we can change our life.

– everyone’s got backstories which affect how they see the world, but which story is running you now?

– common backstory for successful people is hunger – something produced drive in them to overcome their own limiting backstories.

– stories give you inspiration or they can give you an excuse to stay where you are.

– communication is hearing what’s not being said. If you only take the words people say then you’ll probably have disastrous relationships because people rarely speak what they’re really feeling.

– being interested in another person’s story creates a deeper connection with them.

– people lack that raw connection these days, what is real anymore?

– the story is what drives everything in life: but the understanding of another person’s story is more important than your ability to formulate your own story.

– Robbins says he does a lot of preparation but often gets rid of it when he turns up for a gig if he thinks it’s not right, and changes accordingly. Says his gigs then become “art and alive, otherwise you could do it with a tape-recorder.”

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