Lately, I've been thinking about how you can get to do things that you want to do. Sorry, that's vague, but I have been on 3 hours a sleep a night for the last 3 days so there you go.
On a whim, I wrote a play this summer, and I just found out it got selected for competition for the U of T Drama Festival in February. My immediate reaction was "this is awesome!" but, of course, the cynical/pessimistic/humble(?) version of myself was already coming up with reasons as to why it got selected.
I didn't think it was spectacular... it was fun to write, for sure, and I liked the premise, but I didn't really do any planning for it, and I kind of just started writing and it took it's own course. I feel like writing this way equates to a result with no overarching theme, no overall message, etc. Essentially, it's just two characters with 45 pages or so of "interesting" and "quirky" dialogue. (The synopsis in 8 words: "Waiting for Godot but Godot is a zombie.")
My cynical self is convinced that the reason "Waiting for Zobo" got selected is because no one else submitted a play. (Or that the premise is just gimmicky and about zombies, and they needed a "weird" play, but that's not the point).
Here is my point: I think at this stage in our lives, we're fortunate enough that if we want to do something, we'll be able to do it, as long as you put enough effort into getting to do it.
Aka: success is proportional to the amount of effort and determination and drive.
(While not true for everything, it seems to be the overriding rule in my life)
I feel like this only happens in the smaller bubbles of life, like university, or young adulthood.
In the real world, talent and ability plays a much much bigger role, because in the real world there are simply a much larger number of people competing for what you're doing.
(For example, the act of simply writing a play is probably good enough for in university for it to be produced, but in the real world, it has to be good and smart and clever and well-thought out and amazing)
I think right now, we're still able to get by with little talent and a lot of determination, and I'm going to be thankful for that, because it's going to change in a few years and one day and we'll all be old and upset that we were never good enough to do what we actually wanted to do in life, and will look back on these days because that we got to do it anyways, because we chose to and we could.
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3 comments:
Alternatively, it also is really upsetting to realize that how talented or good-you-are-at-something (past a certain base level) is never as important as you think it is.
I always seem to have more talent and ability than determination and drive--not because I'm a genius, but because I'm lazy.
No matter how big your bubble is, the ability to care about what you're doing enough to lose sleep over will always differentiate guys like you from guys like me.
Don't underestimate your own talent. And, more importantly, don't underestimate the fact that most people can't summon very much determination even for the things they do want to do because they have no discipline. Even if you must believe you have a deficiency in talent that will cripple your every effort in the "real world," you can take solace in the knowledge that the allegedly more talented playwrights at U of T couldn't be bothered to submit anything, which means they've got nothing on you.
So keep getting by, if you have to think of it that way. At least you're showing up.
The lover is right.
Woody Allen said that 90% of success is showing up, and that is something you have on all of the "more talented" playwrights who "didn't submit".
I don't have much to add, that was pretty much spot on, just wanted to echo it.
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