The Inner Game of Hollywood: How to Navigate Your Goals, Fears, Dreams, Strategies and Blackberry.

Ok. So first of all I don’t have a blackberry, yet, but many of my clients do. I see it sometimes propel them to new levels of distraction, hyperventilation, bad grammar and hastily typed shorter emails.

Which is fine, but I don’t have one and can’t say I recommend them, although I must confess that I’m tempted, and quite possibly by the time you read this I will have one. (Or maybe an iPhone.)

But here’s why. Multi-tasking is the enemy. I’ve come to truly believe this. It’s the enemy of depth, completion, focus and inner wisdom. It’s not just a multi-generational thing, or a male-female thing. It’s a cultural thing.

WAIT, WHERE WAS I?

Now, perhaps the concept of “multi-tasking” is relative. Of course it is. As I sit here writing, I’m listening to a mix of songs I created on my iTunes playlist from “Nightmares on Wax” (down tempo groove, with no vocals, although occasional vocal samples, which I’ll now terminate.)

Right I’m back. Where was I? Right. Distractions and stuff. Staying focused. Yeah, not multi-tasking, going deep, blackberry, good or bad, please discuss amongst yourselves.

So here’s the real thing. I read in a some metaphysical writing that it’s important to shut down the many distractions we have and voices talking to us, whether inside or outside our head, so that we can hear our own inner voice. This is important, the author states, because our inner voice waits till it’s quiet because the inner voice NEVER INTERRUPTS.

BUT FIRST, CAN YOU PRIORITIZE?

So if we give equal weight to every sound, question, email, IM, text, fed ex, car alarm, computer reminder etc, the bottom line is we may get lots of stuff done, but we’ll never get to what’s really important. This is because, to put it simply and bluntly, what’s really important is pretty scary to us, and we’ll use any justification to avoid the scary places, the places where we must try something new, the places where we may actual experience, fear, disappointment, anger, sadness, rejection and hopelessness.

The big secret is that these things are not necessarily bad but often, we become afraid of these things, because we think if  we start feeling sad or angry, then we’ll be stuck there and never experience joy, elation, fun etc. again.

But because we’re afraid of this, or that, we keep our surfaces, our consciousness, our desktops, our minds full and cluttered with crap that seem to protect us from that potential pain, but in reality make it nearly impossible to get what we really want out of our life.

WHAT'S THE POINT?

Want to direct a movie? Star in a TV series? Lead a network? Raise a family? Visit the south of France? Great. Lets reconnect with how good it feels to imagine doing those things. And lets use that feeling of optimism to get us past the first tiny step to make them real. And lets remember that if it’s a marathon, and not a sprint, some of the little disappointments, mistakes and miss-steps are actually essential lessons on our journey to Rome (which wasn’t built in a day,) or Burbank, or Park City, or Cannes, or Malibu.

So, look. The important things in our lives are usually a little bit buried under the surface and learning how to navigate our thoughts and process around this is essential. So that’s why I’ve re-titled this book “The Inner Game of Hollywood.”

I want to invite, and encourage you, to look inside, and to go deep. And enjoy the process of discovering your fears, shadows, beliefs and the words of every person at every stage of your life who told you you couldn’t, shouldn’t, wouldn’t live your dream of making it in a crazy business.

Comments

[Joey Robert Parks]

>

Boy, do you have that right. I used to proudly proclaim that I was a great multi-tasker. What I really meant - I see now - was that I could do so many (ultimately) superficial things at the same time that I never really completed anything at the kind of depth necessary for true innovation.

Thanks for the reminder!

[Hollywood Coaching]

Thanks for the comment Joey,

by the way there's a post i read recently thats sort of a post modern version of david allen - it can be found on this blog here:

http://www.scotthyoung.com/blog/2007/10/01/how-to-customize-gtd-to-fit-your-life/

he's part of the next generation of organizational lifehacker guys.

check it out.

-db

[Hollywood Coaching]

actually, better link here:

http://zenhabits.net/2007/04/zen-to-done-ztd-the-ultimate-simple-productivity-system/

-db

(more detail, and actually the link that scott was talking about.)

[Stephanie de Phillipo]

David:
Do you think that you might ever really have a Blackberry or an iphone?

[Stephanie de Phillipo]

David:
Do you think that you might ever really have a Blackberry or an iphone?

[Hollywood Coaching]

I'm very tempted, especially now that the iphones are cheaper. although more to check email when i'm out than to use the phone. as someone who spends so much time on my phone i value my unplugged time.