I recently finished reading Matthew Kelly’s book The Rhythm of Life, in which he uses the sport of golf to illustrate a point: “If you can’t see the shot, you can’t make the shot.” That got me thinking. The more specific the idea, the clearer the vision. But you can’t see anything if you don’t even know what you’re looking for. Which is a HUGE problem for me.
For most of my life, major goals have been defined for me. Graduate from high school! Graduate from college! We’ll split everything into years and semesters so you have built-in checkpoints to track your progress! Even my extracurriculars provided automatic goals. I joined Camp Fire when I was 5, so an obvious goal when I reached high school was the WoHeLo Award. I also started dance classes at River City when I was 5, and I wanted so much to be like the “big girls,” join the River City Stars performing group, and eventually be named Miss River City.
But since then…?
Sure, I’ve had some vague goals. Find a job. Get involved in community theatre. But I never knew exactly what I was looking for. And I still don’t. The most specific goal I’ve had since I graduated from Vandy was getting my PE license, and it felt wonderful while I prepared my application and studied for the exam because I knew what I was working toward.
I’m beginning to realize that specificity is key, in setting and achieving goals as well as in acting. But how can I specifically define what a character wants when I don’t even know what I want? So it’s time to do some serious thinking (and praying!) and figure it out.
I like to think I know who I am. Catholic. Performer. Engineer.
…although how can you know who you are till you know what you want, which you don’t?
Still, I guess it’s a place to start.
A Shift In The Light 