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TENSION
RELIEVING VS. GOAL-ORIENTED ACTIVITIES
by Anup Sugunan
A
few years back, my brother and I were emailing each other to
motivate ourselves to make sure all our task items were completed
at
the end of each day. We were unbelievably productive.
However
after a week or so of doing this, I felt a void. I couldn't
figure out what was wrong. Everything on my to-do list was disappearing,
but still no sense of achievement. Looking at the list, I realized
that I was
doing nothing for my film or music goals. Those things which
my dreams are made of were marginalized and paying the utility
bill was higher priority. I recognized that was the problem.
Immediately I added film/music tasks on there and made sure
I did something everyday.
Then
I read in one of my favorite books by John C. Maxwell "Success
One Day At A Time", winners focus on goal oriented tasks,
losers focus on tension-relieving tasks. This pretty much solidified
my thinking to put myself above the utility bill and the taxman.
Then
a year or so of submitting everyday to roles, watching tons
of
movies that were classics, and even writing screenplays, I started
to
feel that void again. This time I broke down the tasks and reversed
engineered it. a fancy term for looking at your end goal and
working
backwards to figure out the steps required to achieve it. I
realized
that after 1000 submissions, it doesn't guarantee me a role
at the end
of the day. Same goes for watching movies, taking acting classes,
reading books. So then I broke the goal-oriented activities
(GOA) to
three categories:
GOA-1:
Passive
This would be stuff like watching
movies, hanging out with friends
talking shop, going to museums, etc. It's motivating and it's
fun,
but it doesn't require a lot of effort. In Chris Gore's "Film
Festival
Survival Guide" (I highly recommend), he interviews Sundance
Film
Fest's head programmer, Geoff Gilmore. Gilmore says the biggest
problem he sees with filmmakers today is that they don't watch
enough
movies. So, basically he saying that they are doing stuff that's
already been done before and done better than what they're doing.
So
don't let the term ‘passive’ dissuade you from doing
this as it's
very important. I try and watch a film a day. I was going through
the whole AFI "Top 100 films of all time" and have
about 15 films left
to see. (I canceled my blockbuster online account because they
tried
to do a switch and bait by taking away the in-store exchanges,
but
that's a whole other blog).
GOA
– 2: Active, but no Guarantees
This would include stuff like taking acting classes, reading
how to
books, submitting for roles, even auditioning. Even writing
if your
end goal is to be a director. Again, going back to
reverse-engineering – I love that term – if at the
end of the day you
don't have a product (film, song, painting, whatever), then
you're not
fully working towards your dream.
GOA
– 3: Active with Guarantees
This
is the where writing, shooting, and editing are the holy grails.
After writing 10 pages, you're that much closer to your dream.
If
you are a writer this is good, but if you are an actor or director,
then this would be in GOA-2. So if you're not doing a GOA-3
everyday,
you're not being completely efficient. Remember, you are what
you do
every day.
EFFICIENCY
– a quick sidenote
How to be efficient. While studying for the medical college
admissions test (MCAT) in a previous life, we spent a lot of
time
learning about how to learn. According to some of what I read,
you
only have about 4 hours of peak brain time and that's first
thing in
the morning. Also, taking 20-40 minute naps/meditation in the
middle
of your day will energize you way more than Starbucks.
Until
next time…
Happy
Filmmaking (Everyday)!
Anup
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