Daily Blog #3: The lives I want to STEAL

Ha ha. I’ve never stolen anything. Never went though the drugstore lipstick stealing phase. Never had a boyfriend who jumped cars. Never stuffed a shirt from The Bay (I’m Canadian) into my school bag. I really was a good girl. I was terrified of trouble. WAIT. There may have been an incident at Lalapolooza with a necklace, when I was 15 <I’M SO SORRY!!! PEER PRESSURE!!>. Ugh. And a few bottles from my parents liquor stash. Okay, so I wasn’t AS good as I initially thought, but I still thought stealing was bad.
And it is.
But now as I push through into a new stage of my career, I am going to coax myself into being a little less…good. The concept of ‘stealing’ is everywhere: stealing ideas, identities, school papers, images… All a click away. Anything that lives in the land of 1s and 0s is up for grabs (Oh DRM, you can only do so much). There are books that champion it — — I love Austin Kleon’s STEAL LIKE AN ARTIST. The concept of wholly original is just so wholly overwhelming (and impossible) that it’s wonderful to have books to guide you through the myriad inspirations we have as artists. But I didn’t saw I wanted to steal people’s ideas. I said I wanted to steal their lives. The identity thief in training…
Of course not. I am still terrified of trouble.
But in this time of ‘paradox of choice’, when I am juggling the acting, writing and Scirens stuff, trying to figure out what is next, what I should be channeling my energies towards when there are no guideposts, I am going to steal the grit, brilliance and innovation of people I admire. Before I used the phrase ‘make your own mentors’ but now I just say steal their lives… steal who they are, what they do, what they stand for. Creatives who are empathetic innovators and change makers. They won’t know what you’re doing. They won’t lose anything by you stealing from them. Their sheer presence is an invitation.
For me those people are Amy Poehler, Ron Howard, Krista Tippett, Jessica Chastain, Ava DuVernay.
I am stealing their lives, in bits and pieces, to help me guide my own. Because our world is changing so exponentially fast that trying to create a wholly unique, original path in life to get you where you want to go may very well be impossible.
Tim Ferris says that you are the average of the 5 people that you spend the most time with.
Good.
