1. Develop a vision of what you want.
2. Set up an action plan for getting the thing you want.
3. Get to work on that plan.
That always seemed pretty logical.
And yet, I recently read something in a new book by Melissa Mills that has me reevaluating this process. In a chapter written by choral conductor Doreen Rao, she says, "Vision comes from action, not vice versa." She goes on to quote Spanish poet Antonio Machado, who wrote, "Roads are made by walking."
These ideas seem to be completely contradictory to my belief in "have a vision and then put it into action." How can you act if you don't have a vision? Wouldn't you just be floundering around aimlessly unless you had a clear goal or path forward?
But when I really stopped to think about it, I could see how this philosophy has been at work in my own life.
While my childhood career aspiration was to be a first baseman and left-handed relief pitcher for the Chicago Cubs (a goal I never reached, sadly), once my passion for singing began to emerge, my career goals vacillated from Broadway star to high school choir director to college voice professor (two out of three ain't bad). When I went to college I honestly didn't know what I wanted to do with my life; I just knew that it had to involve music. So I started doing the things that seemed like they would allow that to happen. I didn't always have a set vision of where I wanted to "end up," but I kept working to improve my skills, pursued the opportunities that came my way, and was willing to see where things would lead.
I just had to put myself into action to see what vision would emerge.
Looking back, it's funny to see how some of the opportunities that were seemingly unrelated to my current work allowed me to develop skills that I now use on a daily basis—skills I would not have been able to hone if I had been too focused on one specific career goal to entertain those opportunities in the first place.
So, while it is not at all a bad thing to have explicit and specific goals of what you'd like to do with your life, you have to be careful not to fall into a tunnel-visioned approach that could close you off to the opportunities that could lead to your true calling (assuming there is such a thing as one "true" calling, but I'll leave that discussion for another day!).
How has your singing been this week? How can you set yourself into action while still leaving yourself open to opportunities that come up along the way?
Now go practice.
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| "Not all those who wander are lost." -J.R.R. Tolkien |
Singing has been much better this week now that my voice is back to 100%. I have now solidified my vocal jury choices, and have begun the memorization process. My practice-focus from here forward is on analyzing the text and being able to understand and portray the story behind the text. I'm also focusing on honoring the written music, while at the same time strategically changing what's written to make it more personal.
ReplyDeleteI think it's beneficial to set specific goals to help keep you on track and push you towards a better version of yourself, but the goals you set shouldn't take precedence or affect your decision in the "unknown" opportunities that come along the way. As long as your focus is good and you are growing and strengthening in whatever aspect you're wanting, then life will respond in giving the opportunities.
My singing has been great this week. When I sing in front of people I tend to let my nerves get the best of me, but like with anything I feel it’s getting better with time and repeated exposure. I actually have kind of adopted a life-execution style of letting my current work and opportunities influence my future. I used to believe that if I envisioned it, it would happen. And that worked up until college. If I had been inflexible to opportunities presented to me, I would have been a miserable double major at Arizona State University starting work on my honors thesis. I would have still been in action, splitting my time between doing things I was interested in and doing things I thought I was supposed to do. But I am confidant opportunities would have continued to present themselves which would have led to me away from the plan I whipped up when I was 17. I think the hardest thing to do is to stay active because it has to come from within. You can’t rely on your skills, your talent, your connections, whatever. You are the only capable of putting yourself in motion and reacting to the opportunities that come.
ReplyDeleteSinging for me this week has gone great! Singing in class however could have gone better. My nerves for some reason kicked in when I sang by myself in front of the class. It honestly baffled me why I got so nervous because I stand in front of these same people everyday and perform work, why should this be any different? but nevertheless I worked through the nerves and it didn't sound 100% but I went with what my body felt capable of doing in the moment. I also agree with the wisdom written above about your goals. Its always been a struggle for me to accept my 'calling' into a career from the arts. And every other path I tried walking on just felt...wrong. And looking back I would never have seen myself in an actor training program, but here I am today. If I wasn't open to change or new paths I don't think the work would be as exciting and my thirst for knowledge wouldn't be the same. Its scary to not have a set 'plan' for life but it leaves room for new and exciting opportunities.
ReplyDeleteSinging for me has been amazing!!! You wouldn't believe me because of my poor demonstration in class. Man who knew singing in front of your peers would cause nerves. I sang True Love over a dozen times in front of my family and it went perfect. When I stood up in class I was calm and ready but when I heard the Piano I went into panic mode. I somehow ended up in my head voice the entire song. Not what I had planned. I do hope next time wont be so nerve racking. After that dreadful day of singing and being an embarrassment in class I was worried if I should ever sing again. I seriously wanted to cry my eyes out and never sing again. But I can't let my brain tell me to flee from something I actually love to do. I hope next week will be better and maybe my nerves will be calm.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I feel like I'm all action, and no vision. I feel like I do a million and one things, and sometimes loose sight of why I'm doing them. However, I do not regret the vast opportunities I've taken, and hopefully they will all amount to something great one day.
ReplyDeletePracticing has been really bad, but now I'm finally starting to get back into a normal every day schedule. Preparing for the recital at the end of the year has given me some motivation to get going (action vs vision)! I'm so excited about the material I'm working on and that is also helpful. Singing isn't a chore, it's an exciting opportunity!
Singing this week has been a little difficult because I'm still getting over being sick. I am coming out of it now though so thats good. When I practice I choose a specific objective I'm trying to accomplish while letting other sub objectives kind of come into mind as I'm practicing. This week my objective was to break up my songs line by line an really try to understand what I'm saying in each line.
ReplyDeleteI love this idea of vision vs. action and how they intercept. I have been playing with the law of attraction ideas and it seems that intention, vision, action, and preparation, are the key concepts to achieve in order to see results. My singing this week has been gentle. After steel pier and singing every day, I decided that I need to be gentle on my voice and focus on warming up as opposed to singing a big song and muscling through. I want to focus this week on using my voice in my work on You Never Can Tell, and my voice on our Sweeney Todd music and use it to help me get into character.
ReplyDeleteI agree that action can sometimes lead to your vision. I am someone who is very futuristic and is always trying to see the "vision" in everything I do. Not saying that this is a bad thing, but taking action can open so many doors. Lately I've been trying to stop overthinking things and to "Just Do It' thanks Nike! ;) Doing this has helped me discover some things that I want in my life and some things that I don't want in my life. I'm in a weird stage in my life right now and I think it's so good for me to just DO STUFF. This can also help with singing in my opinion. I need to stop worrying about what people will think and the "vision" of the song and just do it and see what happens with it. Maybe I'll find something new? I don't just a thought.. AMI RIGHHT?
ReplyDeleteI can absolutely agree to what you have said. I grew up with a strong "tunnel-vision" focus on my desired career and wasn't open to other options or discoveries. It wasn't until I let go of that blinding focus where I stumbled upon a career choice that felt like home and felt right. I took action and everything slowly fell into place and my path and plan emerged from there.
ReplyDeleteThis week my singing practice has improved. It feels so rewarding to hear slight changes after only a short period of time. I was practicing along with one of my recorded singing lessons and I can hear how my voice and shifted and grown since that time. I also loved hearing my singing teacher say that I should be practicing 3+ times a day. Hard core lady right there, and I love it. But that persistence leads to change. I am eager to start focusing on performance as well and how to portray a character in a song and emote. Based on my performance most recently in class, I have so much to learn. I feel energized moving forward and I am appreciative that I am in a position to absorb information and improve.
I've been thinking about this a lot recently. There are so many areas of theatre that interest me that I haven't had the opportunity to explore yet. I'm not entirely sure what my long term goals for this field are at the moment, so I'm allowing myself to live in a place of exploration. I decided at the beginning of this year that I would do my best to absorb information and hone my skills so I'll have lots of options.
ReplyDeleteI have heard from loads of people working as professional actors, that a strong work ethic is the most helpful thing for getting work. And I have also heard that just being human, and allowing yourself to have as many experiences as possible is just as important as training. So even though I don't have a specific goal in mind at the moment, I will still work hard and also try to gain various life experiences along the way.
I love Kiss Me and I'm excited to dive into The Contest!
Throughout my couple years of college, every time I say that I am a theatre major or actor, the first questions I get are "where do you plan on going after college?" or "what kind of actor do you want to be?" Truth is I don't really have an idea for either one of these questions. I thought I had it all figured out before I started college and then I realized there are so many more doors that I could walk through! Right now I am just trying to take advantage of my time to train and hope I can find some kind of path within the next couple of years. I know that in a couple years I will still be unsure but hopefully I will have a better idea of my strengths!
ReplyDeleteSinging is going great! My voice feels good for the most part. I really need to continue working my vocal technique since I don't have lessons for the next two weeks and hopefully I will be able to get off book with Green Finch sooner rather than later.
Singing in front of the class this week, that's the first time I've sung in front of anybody. Before this class I hardly ever would even sing by myself, I was/am just scared of my voice. And usually if I found myself singing it would be if I had headphones in, I would take them out and be like OH NO and stop singing immediately. So I feel good about doing something new and scary.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a teen I had a clear goal about what I wanted, and I believed with my WHOLE HEART that that is what I wanted and I would die working towards that goal and I would never ever change my mind. I was so sure! It's funny now because after putting my vision into action, that action has changed the course of my vision. Now I find myself with a pretty clear vision and action plan based on that, but I feel very able to let my action affect my vision. It's like the two give and take with each other, and you just have to get good at listening to to them both.
I can't definitively speak on the subject, but it does feel as though our particular generation of actors/artists feels the pressure of time more acutely than a few generations before. This summer I took time away from the theatre to mostly rest and try to reconnect to what I fell in love with about theatre in the first place. At first I was worried I would never find it again, and I had been wasting my time in a concentrated tunnel vision effort to become something that I wasn't sure I wanted to be, but as I rested and stayed open to possibility, and sensitive to my passion I did find the love again. I want to hang on to the sensation of being pulled in this direction as if there was no other way, but I know that it is a day job too. In Stephen King's memoir he talks a lot about the habits of a successful artist and it is just all about the day job and taking action. I haven't found solid footing yet (exampled by this convoluted and wandering paragraph) of finding the balance between the action and the vision, because when one gets too strong it begins to strangle the other.
ReplyDeleteThe voice has been good, recovering from spending the week coughing, but better than expected!
I love the notion that "Roads are made by walking". I think that especially as an actor in my senior year, people are always asking "What are you going to do after you graduate?" and I am sometimes made anxious by my somewhat vague response regarding auditioning for everything and seeing what lands and/or just getting up and moving to a city with a bigger market. It all excites me and scares me but I sometimes wish I had a clearer path or a more specific dream to follow. But perhaps the beauty of the chaotic marathon I intend to run is that my "plan" allows me to be more receptive of opportunities, places, things, and lessons that are supposed to happen. I have often felt that some of the best things in my life were the unexpected, unplanned pieces that landed in my lap. So perhaps it's a little haphazard, but a large part of me just has to trust in allowing things to happen.
ReplyDeleteKen Plain always told me "Life happens when you make plans." That's kind of the same thing here. Especially in this business when we are so helplessly unable to shape our own careers because we are depending on outside opinions of us in order to get work, we just have to go out and DO and ACT and hope that a dream will form and come true and we can contribute to that new project. My singing this week has been tired. I'm working on a shaw play with a thick accent and it's very taxing on my voice. Plus my job requires me to speak constantly. But I'm finding more balance between backspace and resonance and that's really exciting.
ReplyDeleteWhenever I think of something I want to accomplish, I always work backwards from the end goal. I think of what I want to have happen and then go from there. It's a very effective way of figuring out what needs to happen from point a to point b,that way nothing can be overlooked. Now of course I also live my life the motto of "You have to try most things in life at least once", now I'm not going to go out and do cocaine, that's why I say most. You never really know where life is going to take you and it's a horrible idea to stay closed minded to the world, especially when life has soo much to offer to you. I had to opportunity to sing in class this week, and while I have always been critical of my own singing voice I was proud of my work that I did. While it may have not been the best acting wise, I was happy with my sound. I've been using the warm ups I've learned in this class as a way to warm up my voice for Love's Labors Lost.
ReplyDeleteI really, really love this! I've been needing this. As the concept of grad school gets closer and closer, I've been panicking thinking about what I want to choose to study. Coming into college, the plan was always that I would finish up my BFA in theatre and then go to grad school for occupational therapy. As I've gotten further into the ATP, though, I find myself more and more heartbroken thinking about the idea that I won't be able to just do theatre and theatre only for the rest of my life. But it's a really nice reminder to think that life goals come up along the way of other life goals. Just because I set my dream as a 17-year-old doesn't mean I have to follow that dream. I also don't have to panic thinking that where I go to grad school and what I do there will absolutely set my path for my life.
ReplyDeleteMy singing this past week has been pretty steady for the most part. I am beginning to get over my insecurity about my upper register and learning to be patient while the higher notes develop over time. I can really psych myself out sometimes when I look at a piece of music and see that there is a note that is above the staff and has to be sustained for longer than one beat. Right now, I have an array of different goals I would like to meet by the end of college and I am trying my best to live in the moment while doing so.
ReplyDeleteMy singing this past week has definitely been more consistent. I completely agree with the idea that "roads are built from walking". I definitely think that you have to have a vision but you must see it through with action. I have found a lot of joy in studying singing again, and especially in learning more repertoire. I can feel that my voice has been improving so far this semester. GO CUBS!
ReplyDeleteMy singing has been going very well this week. I feel like the songs we’ve selected have really helped grow my technique, and are very fitting for my voice, and I’ve had fun working with them. I think a way that I can set myself up for action while leaving myself open to opportunities is playing around with technique, rather than looking for a particular sound. Thus, I can hear the different ways my voice sounds with the song, instead of sticking to one idea.
ReplyDeleteMy singing has been going fairly well this week. I feel my voice slowly, but surely improving over time. I am in love with the songs that we've selected for me, and I'm constantly working on pronunciation "Shay Eel!". I've never had a tunnel vision approach to anything necessarily, I've always done what makes me happy, and it has guided me throughout my life fairly well. I'm proud of where I am and I'll continue to look forward and enjoy the things I love, regardless of where it takes me.
ReplyDeleteI understand this concept of finding different ways of setting goals because for the most part, goal setting is a set list of steps we must outline in order for that goal to be achieved. For as long as this idea was established I always found myself disagreeing with the concept and finding different ways to go about reaching my goal. This week my singing is progressively getting better. I’m still taking steps to signing in front of those without going into panic including purposely putting myself in these situations, such as auditioning for Jesus Christ Superstar, to retrain my brain that singing in front of a group by myself is not a dangerous situation. I’ve also noticed that my range has developed quite nicely. Typically, my comfort zone is low alto singing in my chest voice, however when performing in class I was more in my head voice in a higher pitch range that I previously couldn’t hit, let alone keep those notes alive very well. I was fairly impressed that I was able to do that without feeling uncomfortable. Even though I’m still unable to fully perform by myself, these small progressions are helping me to keep my mind open to possible goal in the future of getting over that fear and panic. Every small milestone along the way can either keep me on the path previously set for my goal, or divert me to a short pitstop or maybe take me on a better path to my goal. Keeping that open mindset to take me on my way.
ReplyDelete-Camie Jones
I have been battling a little bit of a head cold this week. Being sick is not the most enjoyable of situations, but I used it to work on singing through sickness this week. I have come to realize that is a very realistic scenario in this line of work. I have noticed, that when something is practiced, and solid, the noise of sickness, should have no effect on the quality of your vocals. This is something that I think will come with time, overall It has been a good week for experimentation for how to sing while sick.
ReplyDeleteWhen it comes to goals, I feel that being open to all possibilities can bring you much closer to your goals, than a closed pathway will. You never know what might come your way, that will help you most to grow toward your initial goal. I think that on top of that, staying open to all possibilities can help you refine your goal, or even open your eyes to a variation of the original goal, or even bring up an entirely new goal that your eyes are now opened too. I think I can do this by understanding that it’s a process, there is no one way street to your final goal, it’s a map that we all have to navigate.
his blog post brings to mind a thought I've had before. I've always wondered how many "unsuccessful" (I put this in quotes because success is a relative and subjective concept, and everyone has their own definition of it) are unsuccessful because they never found out what they wanted to do. When I first started attending college, I had no idea what I wanted to do. I'm very happy I was able to find acting and theatre, but at the start of my time here I had no plan because I didn't know what I wanted to do. I wonder how many fantastic musicians, scientists, performers, etc. the world has missed simply because they never found out what they wanted to do.
ReplyDeleteThis week I sang for the first time in front of people. Though it was intimidating, it didn't turn out to be as bad as i thought it would. I'm actually looking forward to doing it again. I'm also excited to continue exploring this and continue improving.
I really like this post, and feel like it's very applicable to the point I'm at in my education. There has been a lot of talk in class lately about the kind of theatre we want to pursue, whether to go to grad school, where we want to move after we graduate, out type, and I feel like I'm still figuring out a lot of this, but I think this is a really important perspective to have. As long as I keep an open mind and keep trying new things, I will eventually figure out what I want to do, and I might want to do multiple things, and that's okay.
ReplyDeleteI appreciate this post so much. This philosophy has been such an important part of my life as an actor. I've found it was the students in high school who obsessed over getting to Broadway that often lost their way in their present situation, pushing that goal ever further from being achieved. Paying attention to the opportunities in the present mold your journey to success in the future. In regards to singing, letting go of that obsession with perfection and idealization of others really put my journey as a singer in perspective. I am only comparing my current self to my past self, rather than my current self to the potential of what I could be in another life. I feel stronger and more ready to perform, more at home in my range, and generally at peace with my process. Excited for what's to come!
ReplyDeleteBoth philosophies on doing stuff with your life seem pretty good to me. If I've ever ascribed to one it would probably be the latter. I kind of let whatever happens happen and roll with it. This is probably why I don't do very well in school and other things. I've never had the drive to decide what I want and pursue it. But I think it's done alright for me sometimes. If you don't know what you want, the least you can do is try to make the best of what circumstance is giving you. Things will come. Or they won't. If the second occurs, at least you can blame it on not having made a plan in the first place.
ReplyDeleteMy singing probably hasn't been great this past week. I've had a cold since Wednesday and it's making it unpleasant to make any noise at all. Hopefully it and the cough that's come with it clear up soon.
Now I'll go practice.
My voice hasn't been the happiest, changes in weather from Summer to Fall and Winter to Spring always do some funky things t it. However practice and actively warming up has helped minimalize the effects.
ReplyDeleteAs far as setting goals, I've always been a goal driven person. I might not always achieve these, but they define my life decisions and steps forward. Moving to Salt Lake, attending the U, and studying theatre have all been goals that brought about unforseen opportunities to advance my life goals, and work toward that yet undefined end goal. It has always astounded me how quickly things can gain pitch and velocity, one action spurring a full collection of life events. While this sometimes feels unsustainable, as long as I put in my own effort, the opportunities remain. It's as an old professor of mine at Weber State would say, "Life happens for those who show up."
"Tunnel Visions" has driven me most of my life so I can totally relate in the respect. However it wasn't until 2-3 years ago my life was changed from pursuing Law school to going into the ATP. I was so hell bent on studying this and being just like my aunt that I didn't mind if I didn't have creative expression. I realized quickly that in order for my own personal success and survival I have to be artistically evolving in some way. I had to let go of that idea and tell my entire family of the one thing that would make me the happiest. I'm lucky I had the support of my Mom but there were others who did not support this idea.
ReplyDeleteBeing open to change is pivotal in life and on stage, we must be like water and go with the current. That is life. We are meant to evolve. Things to think about, thank you!