January 1st, Ode To Shonda Rhimes

When my colleague DaJuan Johnson, the mindset guy, told me to pick a word for the year I was lost. To see DaJaun’s exercise for word of the year text newyeararticle to 44–222.

Here’s my heart’s desire for 2016:

Badassery.

That’s a word.
Think wonder woman. Superhero strength.

It means you know in reaching your goals, you will find challenges. Yes, downright hard-to-stay-the course, challenges. There, I said it… there are no short cuts, no easy ways out.

Badassery means you are up for the challenge, because anything worth something takes work.
Plus you, me, we, LOVE the work. Because it feels soooo good after it’s done.

Badassery.

My word for the year. Borrowed (er… stolen) from the great Shonda Rhimes. I read her book between Xmas and New Years. I could not put it down it is that good!

“Year Of Yes: How To Dance It Out, Stand In The Sun, And Be Your Own Person.” Honest, funny and inspirational.

She’s a FOD (first only different) and she owns Thursday night.

I think that might be a quote from the book. I actually read it and listened to the audible. Her performance is EVERYTHING. Really funny and I feel so close to her now. Plus the recording has the actual speeches that she gave during her year, you hear it as she gave it.

Shonda Rhimes reminds me how to accept a compliment; and how to stand in the power of my creative genius.

No doubt, Shonda is a gifted power source from whom we can all learn a lot.

I liked her book so much better than “Lean In”. Vulnerable, real; it helped me get a vision for 2016.

Here’s what I am going to do in 2016….

1. Feel Awesome.
2. Share more personal, vulnerable content.
3. I plan to live in the stay ready position. That means practice. And, sharing my craft daily, with consciousness and joy.
4. Focus on Zoom In Acting. Making it more awesome. I want to build a nation of Zoomers.

To that end, here’s the point of this post: to kick off 2016.
It’s an exercise I use in my own goal setting: resolve the year before.

It’s what we used at Yale after the run of a new play. Back then, we called it a “postmortem”.

“analysis or discussion of an event. held soon after it has occurred, especially to determine why it was a failure”

When the play closed, everyone on the cteative team the writer, director, dramaturg, designers, the cast met with the faculty. We discussed the intentions of the production, what worked and where we could improve. Finally, we concluded with the lessons we learned along the way.

So, that’s what we did at Yale. My mentor, Dallas Travers, recommends the same for the Thriving Actors Circle program. Before setting goals for the next year, you must deal with the past year.

Ever the good student; I did that. The teacher-in-me, of course, puts my own twist on it. So, on Christmas day, I processed my last year. I did this with digital tools because that’s what I do. I’m the teaching working actor who gets actors to embrace digital tools. And with these tool, actors grow their artistry to infinity and beyond!

When you process the last year, you will prepare to have THE MOST AMAZING 2016. No matter what challenges may arise, your north star, will stay clear.

Here’s how using digital tools:

Step 1. Use your iPhone or iPhoto on your computer to look at the last year of photos and videos. This gives you the best birds eye view of what happened.

Step. 2. Open a new project in iMovie or the Windows equivalent. This will work on iPad or a computer, provided your device has the space.

Step 3. Select all the photos and videos, be they good, bad or ugly. Choose those that resonate the most for you. Save them as a new project. Have fun. This will open your heart and help you see what went down. Throw these images all together on the timeline. Keep it simple or get fancy. It’s up to you. Trim the project down to five minutes or less.

Step 4. Add music, titles and narration that show your brave takeaways from this past year. Experience this look-back to gain perspective and space for what will come next.

Step 5. Share this project with your trusted inner circle only. No need to explain what it is or why or anything. Just share with those people in the world who love you and get you.

What’s your word for the year? Write it below.

And of course put me on that list, share it with me.

That’s it. Your year is complete. Now, on to the next and in with the new!

Click -> Happy 2016! to see my 2015 video.