“Biospheric Trees”
My teacher told me the other day of one of the unexpected discoveries of the biosphere. The trees inside, without the benefit of wind to push them back and forth, developed weak roots and would fall over quite easily. The metaphor should be painfully obvious: it’s when confronted with challenges, with forces pushes and pulling at us, that we become strong.
My profession is marked by an ungodly “failure” rate. The number of projects that get made is a scant sliver of those that are dreamed. For every role we see on screen and stage, there are countless performers who were not cast.
To pretend these matters are easy for those who experience them would be foolhardy. But we can choose to see these experiences – the part we didn’t get, the part we did get that was cut to ribbons, the meetings that were for naught – as opportunities to plant firmer roots in our resolve to live our chosen lives.
Over the course of my career I have seen my own attitude change in this regard. I confess with some embarrassment that years ago the loss of a plum role would send me reeling for days. The sad result was that I ended up doubling my own misery, filling my head with terrible questions of why I was not good enough, and then carrying that toxicity into the next round of auditions and meetings.
So when the wind blows, take heart. It is your friend. It may be the best thing that happened to you that day.
For the Mineralava Musings, this is Edoardo Ballerini.
Being a IT recruiter, I often feel the same way for the ones I have to tell that they weren’t chosen for a job. I feel when I tell them, that they weren’t chosen, they I am telling them that they were somehow “not qualified for the job” However, that is not the case. Clients sometimes want a certain style, age, experience level. Just have to keep trying!