13234: What Would “Winning” Even Look Like?

Raw transcript:

i’ve mentioned from time to time that as
performers
uh we we have a little bit of a
difference from athletes or from other
pursuits that have built-in competition
built-in rankings built-in uh standings
leaderboards and stuff and I came across
a phrase just sitting here thinking that
will help you let go of that if you just
can’t get over the idea that we’re not
in competition with one another let’s
talk about that in this episode of the
VO Heroes
podcast so you’ve likely heard me say
“Look it’s not a race it’s not a
competition you don’t have to look to
your right to your left ahead of you
behind you to see if you’re doing better
than or not as good as someone else
who’s doing what we do acting voice
talent writing uh there’s yeah there are
bestseller lists there are ratings lists
and so on for the final product but one
of the lessons we talk about all the
time is decoupling the process from the
outcome starting very much with
auditions and booking right and yet
because we also have athletic pursuits
in our life because we also have uh
gamification of other things that we do
uh that that notion of I’m behind or
that was good I’m ahead uh creep in and
the phrase that I came across that I
think might help you is to ask
yourself what would it even look like as
a win
like what would it look like if you
actually did end up somewhere and we’ll
talk about a finish line in another
episode
but what if it ended up where you did
get booked and that other person didn’t
is that a win really it might be a win
for you but it’s not a defeat of them
and so the competition kind of fades
into the background when you realize
defining a win you know scoring more
points in a given period of time uh
winning more games in a season uh
getting the highest or longest or
fastest result that doesn’t really
happen with what we do it’s not like we
can clearly define what a win is and so
we can if we choose to let go of the
notion of it being a competition
um and just simply pursue the joy of
what we
do if we can’t define a win or a loss or
the permanence of that win or loss isn’t
well defined like you know somebody’s
going to have another part for the whole
acting community or voiceover community
or there’s going to be another idea that
pops into your head as a writer um just
the whole pursuit of wins versus losses
and competition and that it can be a
little fuzzy when you start to think
well how do I know if I’ve won how do I
know if I’ve lost how do I know if me
not getting one role or not starting one
book didn’t create an opportunity for me
to go after another role or create
another piece of writing like we never
know these things they’re all very
relative anyway the point is you can
begin to let go of the notion of I’ve
got to compete i’ve got to be better
i’ve got to do better i’ve got to I’ve
got to be better than them whoever them
is by realizing it’s really difficult to
measure if not impossible to measure
whether you were effective in that
competition so if you can’t answer the
question what does a win look like
perhaps it’s not a competition at all
just a thought what’s your thought let
me know in the comments below if you’re
on vioheres.com that’s the place to be
that’s where we like it where the
conversation is always calm and sane and
respectful i’d love to know what you
have to to say about this so down below
uh just give me a comment uh hit the
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you can also share this with another
actor that’s very competitive another
voice talent who’s really into what is
everybody else doing another writer who
constantly uh is looking to see if
somebody’s published or somebody’s
working on it where am I on the in the
standings i don’t know what those noises
were but I’m David H lawrence 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

(from YouTube)