13238: What Meditation, Driving and Task Management Have In Common

Raw transcript:

so what does uh meditation
driving and your
own
mastery of discipline in how you do your
work especially as creative types what
do they all have in
common uh there’s one
thing probably more than one thing but
there’s one thing I want to share with
you in this episode of the VO Heroes
podcast
if you’ve ever taken a course on
meditation or you’ve taken a
self-reflection course or anything that
deals with being aware of what your body
is doing when you’re trying to calm
yourself and center yourself they always
talk about breathing and if you’ve ever
gone through a guided meditation where
somebody has guided you through a
meditation you’ll hear them repeat this
over and over and over again and that is
return to the
breath it’s like a touchstone that you
return to to kind of reset and center
and uh correct yourself when your mind
starts chattering and your mind starts
going a little off the rails and that
happens when driving too i just drove
down to San Diego last night for a
dinner appointment and I was noticing on
the five how people were driving how I
was driving it was like a constant
series of readjustments you know do you
stay in the exact middle of a lane all
the time no sometimes you know your car
drifts the the road turns whatever it’s
just a constant series of returning to
straight through on the lanes and we can
use
that in focusing on our work how many
times have you found yourself going “Gh
I just can’t keep my mind on this i
can’t I I just can’t i can’t
even.”
And you can lose the ability to continue
on with the fight if it becomes
overwhelming or you can just gently
correct gently correct and just accept
the fact that this is going to be a
lifelong process and skill and technique
that you’ll use all the time to stay on
track just gently bring yourself back to
focus gently bring yourself back to
focus gently return to the the target
that you’re trying to to
hit
and just saying it out loud can help you
visualize the process i do it all day
long i am absolutely dedicated to being
as efficient and productive as I can be
within reason i’m not I’m not crazy
trying not to be crazy but I do want to
get stuff done because I feel
responsibility to my my friends and my
family and my clients and
so what I find myself getting better and
better and better at doing and this is
the kind of thing that will happen when
you repeat this process over and over
when you lather rinse repeat on this is
if I find myself wondering if I find
myself saying “Huh I wonder what’s going
on on social media right now you know if
I find myself um uh thinking about what
am I missing?” Just gently saying “Back
to task.” I don’t have a particular
phrase that I use but maybe that’s
helpful um just bring myself back to
task just re focus on what’s going on on
my screen or whatever I’m doing if I’m
filling something out or if I’m I’m
working with physical objects uh if I
have auditions to do what’s the goal
with this character what am I trying to
do it’s like your mind is filled with
opportunities to wander so if you just
sort of slightly adjust that process of
return to breath or move the steering
wheel a little bit just adjust just a
tiny little bit it doesn’t take a lot of
effort and you return to that focus you
return to that moment where you were
focused and just make that se that that
that little tiny selfcorrection now you
can fall prey to the notion that if you
have to do that all the time then you’re
not very good at being focused and
productive and efficient but that’s not
true
that means you’re better than most
people at being focused and productive
because
you acknowledge you notice that you’re
kind of veering off and you bring it
back and that’s another phrase that’s
used in guided meditations all the time
is notice notice your
feelings notice the chatter in your mind
notice your breathing notice your body
notice how things around you feel and
noticing those things is a big advantage
if you notice you’re going kind of off
track you’re getting distracted you’re
worried about what’s going on and you’re
not aware of it just gently bring
yourself back pick something that brings
you back to what you were concentrating
on until you can get that task done that
self-correction is what people who are
really really good at getting stuff done
do they refocus they reapproach they
make those gentle corrections not a lot
of effort involved just noticing and
gently
correcting and the more you do it the
better at it you will
get so what I invite you to do is try it
just try it in the next sort of work
period that you have you know if you’re
doing the Pomodoro method 25 minutes or
whatever just notice how many times your
mind starts veering off to something
other than the task at hand and gently
bring yourself back selfcorrection you
don’t even think about it when you’re
driving you’re you’re you’re constantly
making corrections and you don’t even
think about it because you’ve done it so
many
times and once you get really good at
meditation or you do yoga or you do
anything that kind of like makes that as
a component of the process you also get
really really good at it how about
getting really really good at it in the
creative process and in the performance
process i can only imagine my writer
friends who are you know they’ve got a
they’ve got a chapter they’re trying to
finish and they’re thinking about what
they’re going to have for lunch or
they’re wondering if anybody’s responded
to their Instagram post you know I I get
it i get it our minds do uh what they
want to do sometimes but you can guide
yourself and if you do it over and over
and over it will become second nature
and better and you’ll see a much cleaner
and clearer focus it’s never going to be
perfect but that’s for another
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with another creative type another actor
voice talent writer who might want to
hear these words we know you have many
choices when it comes to listening to
podcasts and we appreciate you choosing
Southwest or the Video Heroes podcast i
really appreciate it i’m David H
florence the 17th i thank you so much
for watching and for listening and I
will see you in the next episode of the
VO Heroes podcast

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