How to be the Luckiest Person Alive

Tivoli Bays (a lucky place) photo by Wayne Pyle

The title of today's post comes from James Altucher's blog post about How to Be the Luckiest Guy on the Planet in 4 Easy Steps. There's a link to his original post at the bottom of this one.

He recommends 4 practices: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual

He says that when he practices these daily, he ends up being the luckiest guy alive and when he lets these practices go, he ends up in the downward spiral that I seem to find myself in right now.

So, I'm taking on Jimmy's ideas and I'll explore them here and post about how they are going for me.

I started today with the physical.

Let me preface this by saying that we lost our house a few months ago and it was quite difficult emotionally, financially, physically and mentally, but it was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

I'm not a big believer in home ownership. To me it's a really expensive box to put all of your crap in. George Carlin said that first, I believe, and I've always took it to heart. Do we really need to go in debt to the banks in order to say I "own" a home?

I don't think it's necessary.

Anyway, we lost our tiny overpriced box and had to move north of where we were living to a tiny village called Tivoli. It's a quirky place with Bard students and famous artists and blue collar workers and has a fabulous bakery and some really great restaurants, a small public library and the place where I'm writing this from - Tivoli Bays. (pictured above)

We still have not been able to get rid of the tiny overpriced box and now the neighborhood kids have been trying to steal things out of the shed that is still on the property. So I went there last night and emptied the shed, grabbed our bikes, garden tools, an artist's easel and came home.

Today, I rode that bike for the first time in more than a year. The chain slips, the gears don't work right, the thing weighs a ton, but I was able to move through space and get out of the house and it felt good and right to do that. The photo I took is a result of that ride.

I'm sitting on a dock right now typing this, instead of being in the house we are sharing with a friend, and the loons are calling and the trains are blowing their whistles and the wind is rushing through the marsh grass and I do, indeed feel lucky.

The mental aspect of James' practice is about making lists and coming up with ideas and I've been putting that into practice as well. I teach a screenwriting class at a local community college and the thing that seems to be the most difficult for some of them is coming up with ideas. James' recommendation is to make lists of ideas until your brain hurts. I made a few today, ideas for screenplays, ways to make more money with less frustrating work, book ideas, ideas for leading a more creative, nurturing, uplifting and fulfilling life. His theory, as I understand it, is that by making these lists, our brains have to fulfill some of them at some point. We get a brain itch and our bodies have to scratch it!

Emotionally, James recommends letting go of negative people in your life. One of the things I've done recently is purge negative people from my Facebook page. At first it felt scary because I genuinely like people, even the negative ones. But after I pushed that button that said "unfriend" and "block" I felt relief. I don't really use Facebook that much anymore anyway. I find it to be a giant bathroom wall with graffiti scribbled on it, "Like me", "I eat spinach", "My girlfriend dumped me", "Look how cute I am", "Come and play with me" and it's mentally exhausting. 

I do like seeing friends' photos, but I've realized that I have not really seen any of my friends face-to-face in a really long time and I want to start to change that. When I'm with friends and we are just hanging out, talking about life, laughing, playing, I feel like I've been plugged into a phone charger and my green battery signal is going up and up and up. Right now, I really only spend time with people if I'm working with them. I work and work and work and then when I get home I work some more. 

As Jack Nicholson's character in THE SHINING says, "All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Probably an unlucky one, too.

The final practice is spiritual. I'm not religious. But, like James, I do find that reading books by spiritual leaders, practicing meditation, doing yoga, being in nature are all very spiritual things that make me feel more connected to the world. I've also found some great apps like Omvana that allow you to create and play guided meditations and that leads to a spiritual practice in a different way. I'm not connected to Omvana in any way, I just really like their app. Let me know if you try it and what you think.

Sitting out here on this dock on the bay and listening to the world existing around me is a spiritual experience and I do feel lucky to be here.

Here's the link to James' original post:

http://www.jamesaltucher.com/2011/02/how-to-be-the-luckiest-guy-on-the-planet-in-4-easy-steps/

Be lucky!

You can follow me on Twitter @waynepyle and follow James @jaltucher or buy his book How to Be the Luckiest Person Alive by clicking the link below. (As an Amazon associate, I get some pennies just to say, "Look, pennies." Thank you!)

                                                                      

How to be More Creative NOW

First, a quick quiz to see if you're creative. Follow the instructions carefully!

1. Put the pointer and middle fingers of your right hand on the underside of your left wrist right under the pad of the thumb. Do you feel your pulse? If you're not sure, try question two.
2. Place your right hand over your heart (located on the left side of your body). Do you feel your heart beating? Still not sure? Proceed to question three.
3. Place your left hand in front of your mouth and nose. Breathe. Do you feel air hitting your hand?

If you answered "yes" to any of the above questions, congratulations! You ARE creative because you are still alive. You may not feel creative or be as creative as you'd like to be but we'll address that in a second.

If you answered "no" to any of the above, please stop reading this blog and seek medical attention immediately.

 
A lot of us don't feel creative because we have this mistaken idea that creativity means pursuing some kind of arts related activity. Even though the arts can definitely improve your creative thinking you don't have to be a writer, artist or musician to be creative.

Some of us have this expectation that our creativity has to somehow match or exceed someone we hold as our creative "ideal". Some us worry that we took a few minutes out our day one time a few years ago to be creative and we never finished the creative task we started, so we must somehow be flawed because creativity didn't come to us instantly. Some us are afraid that making room for creativity in our lives will somehow disappoint us. Some of us are just plain afraid.

Here are few simple exercises to be more creative NOW:

Don't forget to BREATHE. 

What happens when we don't breathe? We die. 

The same thing happens when we pursue a creative endeavor and we don't breathe deeply because of fear or anxiety. Shallow breaths cause us to starve our brains of oxygen and send more to our limbs so that we can take flight or stand and fight. 

When you are doing something creative you might want to have your brain working at full power. So remember to take deep breaths as you work. Resist the urge to run away and breathe through it. You'll find that you'll be able to complete your task more easily if you bring your attention back to your breath every now and then. 

Right NOW inhale deeply and hold your breath for three seconds. Now exhale and as you do, let your shoulders drop just a little bit lower that they were before. Instant relaxation that you CREATED. See, you are already a little more creative just by creating relaxation.

Practice VISUALIZATION. Do this right now. Look around the room you are in. Pick something that is in the room with you right now: a chair, your child, the meal you are eating. Breathe deeply and exhale. 

After reading the instructions, close your eyes. With your eyes closed, try to see what you picked in three different ways. 

Could the chair be a different color, a different size, a different design? Could your child be dressed differently, have longer or shorter hair, be taller, older, shorter, younger? Could your meal be larger, smaller, a different color? 

Now think of a way that you could interact differently with the object you picked. Could you use the chair in different ways, other than sitting? Could your child be doing some other activity that could enhance their creativity? Could your meal be created some other way? (Like this 3D printed pizza?) 

Now see your chosen object in a different setting. Put the chair on the moon, in an igloo or a beer hall. See your child at the zoo, on a train, at the beach. See your meal at a fancy restaurant or a French cafe. 

Now have that object offer up a unique perspective. Maybe the chair can give you an idea for a new blog. Maybe your child might tell you about an idea for a class you could teach. Maybe your meal helps you invent a 3D printer for pizza. (Oh, that's already been done!) 

If you were able to do this exercise easily, you are definitely creative. If not you may need a bit more practice or you may just be resisting the exercise. I teach my actors in my acting classes that whatever we resist, persists. When you realize you are resisting and accept it, a lot of times the resistance will disappear! Try it. You might be amazed.

If your resistance is being caused by negative self-talk try this: Get out a pad or paper and some pens or pencils or crayons and draw what your negative voice looks like. Give him or her or it a lot of detail. Now draw your idea of a pure creative spirit, the one you'd like to have. If you like, draw a scene where that character defeats the negative voice with pure creativity. Sometimes picturing what the negative voices look like takes some of their power away. Some people crumple up the negative voice drawings and throw them out, burn them ceremoniously or turn them into something useful. Discover for yourself what works best for you. 

You might find that you found enjoyment in the doing of some of these exercises. Finding the joy in the process of creativity is one of the strongest motivators for becoming more creative. I highly recommend it! Keep LLC'ing everyone...

 

You, LLC

As you may have noticed, I'm changing the name (and focus) of this blog to YOU, LLC (You, Living Life Creatively).

After my last post about the importance of creativity as an opposing force to destruction, I realized that while, yes, I am an actor and those experiences are important to me, I'm also a human being who is interested in how to live a more creative, nurturing, uplifting and fulfilled life in all areas of my life. I'd also like to share that interest with others.

Instead of focusing on just one aspect of creativity that I'm involved with - being an actor - I'm going to explore many different aspects of the creative life: writing, art, film making, teaching, cooking, being a parent, husband, partner, friend; all of those areas of our lives that can be made better by applying creativity and creative solutions to them and then seeing what happens.

I like the idea of taking a legal term, LLC (Limited Liability Company) and turning into something of a mantra YOU, LLC (You, Living Life Creatively). I like the idea of a life lived creatively with boldness, freedom and expression as a priority. I like the idea that the members of this LLC will learn new ways to think about old problems, discover old ideas that can be applied to new problems and hopefully have a lot of fun doing it. Oh yeah, I also just like IDEAS.

Thanks for reading! I'm looking forward to our journey together.

Wayne Pyle, LLC

Thoughts on the Boston Marathon Bombings

Buzzard's Bay, MA

This past weekend, I was leaving a funeral in Buzzard's Bay, MA for a beloved aunt on my wife's side of the family when I heard about the bombings in Boston. It was the first funeral I'd ever been to where hundreds of people showed up to pay their respects and say goodbye. There was a long line of people that wound its way around the funeral home and out the door into the parking lot.

I was very moved to see that this woman had touched so many lives. She had obviously made a difference in people's lives in her short time on this earth. It made me stop and think, "Have I touched as many lives? What is my contribution to this too short amount of time we all have? What small changes could I be making to make more of a difference?"

As we left Buzzard's Bay my wife, Heidi, reminded me that it was Patriot's Day. I had no idea what that was. I've lived in Boston, but I was working on Lion King at the time and going through the trauma of my divorce, so I didn't really participate in as many of the city's cultural events as I would have liked to.

She also said that it was the day of the Boston Marathon. I had just been thinking that one of things I would still like to do is run a marathon. In my imagination, I saw myself running the 26.2 miles looking around with joy and awe at the people around me going on their own journey. I could feel myself exerting my body, sweating, struggling, talking to myself, urging myself to finish, to just make it one more mile, one more mile. In my revery, I saw Heidi and my young son waiting for me at the finish line, smiling, happy, as I collapsed into their arms.

While imagining all of this, I hit the Twitter button on my phone. I wasn't looking for anything related to the marathon, just seeing what friends were up to. My imagined experience of running a marathon came crashing to a halt when one of my Twitter followers stated, "Oh no, I know some people running the marathon."

My heart jumped. I knew that something bad was happening. This was within 20 minutes of it actually happening. I was amazed at the speed news travels and I quickly searched the web and found out that bombs had gone off - right at the finish line.

The finish line - the goal - the hoped for future - nirvana - bliss - the end of struggle and the beginning of stories told about the race that happened...and suddenly all of that was twisted into a nightmare of human body parts and metal and death and destruction. I was saddened and angry by this news and wondered how best to respond.

How DO we continue to strive to make a difference when every other day the news is filled with these stories of shootings and bombings and revenge and death?

This was now the question on my mind as we drove on, away from Massachusetts and friends and family and back to New York, back to work, back to the students I teach every day at SUNY New Paltz and SUNY Dutchess Community College.

What do we DO?

As I stood before my first class, feeling defeated, feeling like they don't really care about the skills I am teaching them, feeling like they might give up in the face of all this violence, I had a revelation.

What do we do in the face of death and destruction?

We do what all artists have done and continue to do and will continue to do until our sun shrinks to a cold, white dwarf and we are no longer here. We CREATE.

We make something from nothing. We take our lives and experiences and skills and education and we create something new, something that never existed before and we share it with world and say, "Hey, take a look at this, what do you think?"

Sometimes, the world responds back with praise and money and fame and glory and sometimes just your best friend in the whole wide world sees the work and says, "Eh, try again." But the WORK of CREATION continues and will continue and that work, that drive to make beautiful and worthy and challenging things and films and plays and stories and myriad other forms, is light years away from the drive of the person who cobbled together some pressure cookers and ball bearings and blew up a small child and a family and other people who were there to celebrate the gloriousness of human beings and what they can accomplish when they put their minds and hearts and souls into something.

Those two bombs have hurt and killed and maimed. Their intention was to destroy and cause fear. But they cannot stop us from creating beauty out of chaos, they cannot maim our ability to love and reach out and create alone or together works that celebrate what it means to be a human being among human beings. They cannot stop art from happening and overwhelming the world with joy and beauty and light.

I urge all of you, in response to this tragic event, to create something beautiful, something worthy, something challenging, something funny as an oppositional response to this destructive event. Share your creations with me, with others, with the world or just hold it in the palm of your hand and know you have stepped on the other side of the line away from hate and fear and destruction.

My thoughts are with my Boston brothers and sisters today. May they find answers and closure and love and begin the journey of healing as soon as possible.

Day One: First Read Through

I can see through all of your motivations.

Usually on the first day of rehearsals for a play, you get to meet the rest of the cast and crew, exchange pleasantries, look at the sets and costume designs, fill out paperwork, have an election for an Equity deputy with the Actors Equity members in the cast and do a table of the read of the play. Today was unusual because the cast is just me! We still had the Equity Deputy election and I voted for myself unanimously to be the deputy for the production.

When I first came into the theater, Brendan, Brittney and Michael were onstage around the usual "table" and I sat with my back to the audience to do paperwork and say hi to everyone. We did the election, took a "5" and I realized that I was really uncomfortable with my back to the audience, so I asked Brendan if I could switch places with him. It just seemed more natural to be facing out to the house. Plus, I want to start getting the feeling that I'm telling the story to the audience as soon as possible. It's amazing to me, how much more relaxed I was just turning and facing the potential of those seats being filled with people. Brendan said the playwright may come see the show as well. That made me a little nervous and excited at the same time. I'm looking forward to doing it in front of an audience and have them help me create this world.

We read through the whole play, well I did anyway, and I found new things already as I was doing it for the first time and re-hearing it which is what rehearsal actually means, re-hear-sal. The pace was quick and we got through it in about an hour and six minutes, which seems to be about right. There wasn't a whole lot of laughter, but I know we'll get there. I also know I still have a lot of work to do, but Brendan was happy with the overall feel of the characters and where they are going. After the read through we went through the play character by character (there are 40) and I took notes on what to work on with each role. Mostly I want to make sure that the characters have strong wants and are "fully committed" to getting them. I want them to have a truth about them and not just have them be caricatures.

I came back to the actor housing after the rehearsal and started working on the lines again. The memorization still seems like such a bear, but I'm starting to feel like I'm getting a grasp on it. Because I was tired some of the lines I've known for weeks were a bit ragged but I know after I get a good night's sleep tonight and get some food in the morning, I should be good to go.

I did take a bit of a break in between eating dinner and working on my lines and stumbled on this very fascinating web series called, "KIDS react to" and "TEENS react to" by The Fine Brothers. The kids watch viral videos and the Fine Brothers show both the videos and the kids reacting to them at the same time. The multi-cultural kids are bright and funny and make great comments and the videos are well made with comments about the history of the videos as well. If you want to spend a few pleasant minutes watching internet memes and hearing the "darndest things" that kids say about entertainment on the internet, tune into "KIDS react to" or "TEENS react to." If you watch a bunch of them, you see the kids grow up, too, which adds an interesting poignancy to the series.

WP

http://imdb.me/waynepyle

The Journey Begins...

Studying my script for FULLY COMMITTED while at rehearsal
for Half Moon Theatre's 10-minute Play Festival. 

Here I am. At last. In Ellenville, NY. It's the night before my first rehearsal for Shadowland Theatre's FULLY COMMITTED, Becky Mode's one-person play about an out-of-work actor who works in the reservations office of a four-star restaurant in Manhattan. 

I moved into the actor housing, had dinner with my wife, Heidi, and my son and then saw them off as they headed home, worked on the first third of the play, Skyped with my Dad and Heidi, and decided to log on to Blogger to put down my first thoughts before we begin.

Nervousness is still there. This feeling of a long journey that has to be undertaken in a short amount of time is still there. Uncertainty over lines and character choices and storytelling is still there. The fear is no longer as prominent because I've spent some time with the script and I've been saying the lines and thinking about the people who inhabit this play every day.

It will be interesting to me, and I hope to you as well, how the process will work to get this play to where it needs to be for opening night. As I work through each section, I'm beginning to visualize ways to make the characters more real, more true, more wanting of something authentic and less just "voices" that I change to distinguish between who is speaking.

For those of you who don't know the play, Sam, the out-work-actor, arrives at his reservation job in the basement of a ritzy restaurant and his manager, Bob, and co-worker, Sonya, aren't there. The phones are ringing off the hook and he gets right to work putting everyone he can on hold and trying to handle everyone else's problems as efficiently as possible.

Needless to say, problems escalate at a faster rate than Sam can keep up with them, and as he tries to keep everything from falling apart he is also trying to figure out how to get home for Christmas to stay with his recently widowed father and he is waiting to hear if he is going to get a second callback for a part in a show at Lincoln Center.

The actor playing Sam also plays all of the 39 other characters who try to yell, plead, cry and cajole Sam into giving them what they want. By the end of the play, Sam has grown, based on some feedback he receives from his agent's receptionist and his willingness to stand up for himself.

It's a fun piece and will be physically and mentally challenging. I'm at that point now where I'm looking forward to seeing what the rehearsal process will bring out of me as an actor and a person. I'm tired as I write this, but look forward to tomorrow with a kind of nervous excitement like that feeling I remember getting when I stepped on to the big yellow school bus for that first day of school when I was a kid.

Right now, I've got to get some sleep so I'll be well rested. I'm going use one of my tried and true memorization techniques which is to put on my earphones with a copy of the play I recorded (on a cassette tape, no less, remember those?), so I can drift off listening to the story and hoping my unconscious mind will pick up some of the words and plot points my conscious mind is still resisting.

I've got several places in the script where I'm still not quite sure what happens next, but I know as I take the risks needed to play each character fully and as Brendan Burke, the director, guides the telling of the story, my body and mind will eventually start to know what part of the story needs to be told at just the right time to be effective. It's all a race against the clock of opening night, which I can already hear ticking LOUDLY in my ears. (or maybe that's just my high blood pressure)

They say "the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step," but I say it can begin with one word spoken on a stage. I'll be posting again tomorrow after rehearsal. 

WP
http://imdb.me/waynepyle

10 Chances to Make Great Theatre

Half Moon Theatre's 10-minute Play Festival at the Oakwood Friends School in Poughkeepsie, NY was an exciting night of theater that really showcased our company and the playwrights who participated in the event.

The theme of this year's festival was anniversaries and it was the fifth anniversary of Half Moon Theatre being established. The first play was GUS AND GLORY by Darrah Cloud, the director of the newly formed Playwright's Collective. The play is a wonderful exploration of how we relate to each other (or not) in relationships by showing a couple who go to a drunk psychic and become possessed by the spirits of their dead mother and uncle.

AUNT PITTIPAT is a tour-de-force monologue written by David Simpatico about the first anniversary of 9/11 and remembering the loss of a loved one who was more than what the New York Times called, "A Planner of Family Fun." The writing is lyric, powerful and moving and the images will stay with you for awhile, much like the images from that event.

DEDICATED, by Suzanne Bradbeer, is another powerful piece about a mother who does not want her to son to go off to college because she can't seem to move on from her husband's death.

DAY ONE is about a young, newly married couple trying to get used to each other at a cabin in the woods. The husband is highly allergic to everything, and his agitation also seems to be symbolic of the anxiety he is having on day one of his new marriage.

MARY'S EDDY by Y York is a surreal piece about a woman who starts to make up an "imaginary" lover when her husband is out of the room. She swaggers around, trying to look sexy, changing voices for both herself and her lover. When her husband catches her, he says his name, trying to bring her back to reality.

DEAR CHINA by Rob Ackerman is about three window dressers in Brooklyn who take turns addressing the titular country about it's woes and wonders. I had the wonderful opportunity to play Duke in the production.

GOTCHADAY is a play by Rob Handel that shows us two parents who have adopted an Asian boy and they are semi-celebrating his "gotcha day" when they made the trip to Hanoi to claim him. They take turns telling their version of that day. The wife cajoles the husband into singing the lullaby that he has been singing to their son because it is the old Tin Pan Alley tune, "Rockabye your Baby to a Dixie Melody." The husband worries that his carefully edited but racist tune will somehow corrupt their adopted child in some way, but he sings it anyway, because it puts him to sleep. I had the privilege of directing this lovely piece and it was well received.

PLEASE LEAVE A MESSAGE is a play by Jude Albert that I didn't get to see because I was backstage tonight and one of the actors was ill during the rehearsal. From the audience response it was quite powerful.

I also had the great fortune to direct Chisa Hutchinson's BLUE LABEL. A milquetoast of a man comes into a tattoo parlor every year on the anniversary of his wife's death to get a hash mark placed above his heart. This is the tenth year and the tattoo artist has broken out a bottle of Johnnie Walker Blue to celebrate. They battle verbally and are attracted to one another and eventually he takes a step forward and kind of asks the tattoo artist out at the end. A very sweet and moving exploration of how to move on from sadness and loss.

The final play is ANNIVERSARY SEASON by Jenny Lyn Bader and this one skips ahead throughout the years of a couple's life as they celebrate their wedding anniversary with threats of hurricanes and unwanted guests.

I enjoy being a part of this festival because I like that we can put together a moving, funny, thought-provoking evening of theater without too much fuss and worry. We hold the scripts in hand, use minimal props, costumes, lighting and sound and the effectiveness of good words spoken by good actors is hard to top. I recommend that everyone experience something similar at least once in their lives. I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at how moving and enjoyable an experience it can be. Keep LLC'ing!

*Update: We've already had another 10 Minute Play Festival this year (2013)!

Welcome to An Actor's Life for Me!

Although I plan on covering many topics in this blog, the main focus will be on what an actor's life is like from day to day. There seem to be so many ideas about what being an actor means and I'd like to dispel some of the myths that so many young people seem to have when they enter this business and explore my own reasons for becoming and continuing to pursue an actor's life.

I have a lot of experience as an actor in films, television and onstage and yet I still struggle day to day with finding the joy in the work and finding the best way to express myself within my chosen art form. 

I like to do many things besides acting as well. I garden, write poetry and scripts, teach classes at various colleges, do voiceover work, make films, videos and art, use social media like Twitter and Facebook and I've dabbled in many different kinds of hobbies and pastimes. I love spending time with my children, my wife and my family. I love that an actor's life is a collaborative one, not just for projects, plays and films, but also in the everyday living of life.

I'm about to embark on a more detailed journey than I ever have before. I've been acting since I was very young when my parents first enrolled me on Romper Room, a children's television program from the seventies. I've been doing this for a long time, but this is the first time I've ever explored what and how I do what I do in any depth by writing out my process, thoughts, struggles and rewards.

I hope you'll join me in this journey inward and outward and that my words will inspire, educate and entertain you whether you are pursuing the actor's life yourself, or  just a curious onlooker. Thank you for allowing me to spend some time with you, I'm looking forward to seeing what we create together.

Since I live near Hyde Park, NY in the beautiful Hudson Valley, I'll leave you today with this quote from President Franklin D. Roosevelt, whose home and library is nearby. 

"Art is not a treasure in the past or an importation from another land, but part of the present life of all living and creating peoples."

*Update: Renamed the blog YOU, LLC and I'm currently living in Tivoli, New York. Although I will continue to cover topics on acting, I'm also looking at how we can all live our lives more creatively. YOU, LLC.

WP 
http://imdb.me/waynepyle