Obstacles, Objectives, and the Why of What We Do

I hold the secret to your success.  It is time to explain two important words that are integral concepts to becoming a Star.  We actors talk a great deal about objectives and obstacles.

When analyzing our script, actors identify an obstacle as that which is in the way of achieving our objective, our goal.  Objectives pull you forward. Obstacles hold you back

Obstacles can be something physical (like I’m trying to get into the house but there is a bear in the way) or internal (I have to get into the house but I really don’t want to).  Resistance, the repellant feelings that can prevent one from experiencing something new (like interviewing yourself in the mirror perhaps?), is an internal obstacle that we all face on our journey of discovery.   I am very familiar with resistance, after all, my theatre school experience went something like this…

Roar like a lion.

Don’t want to.

Roll around on the ground with your legs hanging open doing panting breaths.

Yeah right.

You are fire.

No.  Really I’m not.

Release this breath with sound.

Nope.

Take this line from the text and find the ‘tree’ emblem through movement.

Seriously.  You’ve got to be kidding.

 

Yeah.  That pretty much sums up theatre school.

You’d think an actor would eat up such experiences, dive in head first, and relish in the discovery.  Nope.  I resisted almost every one.  But I realised that every lesson I resisted taught me something I couldn’t teach myself.  So I stopped resisting Resistance.  I accepted the discomfort as part of growth.   How did I learn to live with resistance?

No Blocking.  No blocking is Rule #1 of Theatre Sports, a series of fun games aimed at training actors in improvisation.  Theatre sports are building games.  One actor offers their fellow artist a suggestion to create a story.  You are not allowed to stop the energy, block the offer and change the story.  You must take the offer and build on it.  That is what makes these games difficult and ridiculously entertaining.

Life is a series of offers.  Your job as the artist in creating your character and your story must start by not blocking.  Take every offer.   Even when life hands you crappy offers, demand of yourself, as an artist, to find a creative way to build upon the offer with the goal of having a great story.

So what is a great story?  How can resistance and obstacles help you understand your story?

A question I often wrestled with as I struggled living as an actor was:  Is resistance an obstacle to overcome or a signpost saying ‘Youre going the wrong way’?  What if resistance is your life’s way of saying, “this isn’t for me”?  What’s the right answer?

There isn’t one.  There is no right or wrong.  Resistance is just a signpost for an opportunity to make a choice.  What choice do you make?  The one you can live with.  Try to balance living with no regrets with living peacefully.  But try to always make the choice that helps to tell the story of the life you want to live.

Unfortunately, people are so hung up on the obstacles that they don’t live that life.  Living requires action, like a great play.  Stephen, our illustrious Acting prof, taught us this one:  Don’t play the obstacle.  That’s bad acting.  There’s a bear, a girl, and a house.  Don’t ‘play’ the bear: how scary it is, how big it is.  Just get into the house.  The bear will take care of itself.  The bear is boring.  The girl-that’s-about-to-get-killed-so-she’s-scared is boring.  It’s HOW she gets into the house: her struggle as she is chased by the bear, it’s raining, she’s sprained her ankle, with the bear just inches away she finds a hammer, she breaks into the house, her blind determination to see her family again saves her life.   Now that‘s a story.  Don’t play the obstacle*.  The bear is there to inform your choices and inspire action.  It is only there to inform HOW you will do what you are supposed to do.

Take it from Neitche.  He said, “He who has a why to live for can bear almost any how” (one of my favorite wish-I-wrote-that quotes).

You need to find your WHY.  Your objective.  The reason you do what you do and say what you say.  Find the WHY that pulls you into action so that you will pursue the life you dream of living.  You need your WHY in order to overcome your resistance and navigate the obstacles life throws at you.  Let your WHY guide you, not your obstacles.  Merely let the obstacles inform you along the way.  The WHY is the secret to your success.

One final thought.

When doing script analysis often there is one line as an actor you just don’t get.  You have no idea why the writer stuck it there.  It makes no sense.  You don’t want to say it.  You can’t find an objective for that beat so you throw it away, saying it as convincingly as possible, without understanding why you’re saying it.

Until one day, you get it.  And it changes everything.  You realize it was the key to unlocking the whole scene and possibly the key to truly understanding the character.

Sometimes what you resist indicates there is wisdom that you are not quite ready to understand.  But when you do, it is perhaps the key to unlocking your story.  So listen to your resistance.  Learn to love the obstacles.  Enjoy the opportunities for action.  Your journey has just begun.

 

Let’s add these questions to your Interviews:  What is the Why of my life?  What do I work for?  What Why got me through this journey?  (We’re talking like we are already a success, remember?)

 

*I know some obstacles are not a laughing matter.  Some of the circumstances that hold us back in life are very serious and heart breaking.  It is not my intention to make light of anyone’s hardships.  If this material brings you any perspective to ease your struggle I would be so happy.  Just remember, I’m rooting for you.