A good album tells a story, with each song weaving a tapestry of the artist's life, like a snapshot of their history. And it takes the active listener on that journey, to share in the experience of that long and winding road. Yet today, most young people listen to individual songs, not albums. Like much of what they consume, it is singular, disjointed, with little context to what lays to either side. It is like the feeds they doom scroll, feeding one piece of information after another, but providing nothing of substance.
Smallsteps likes to sing.
She sings quite a few different types of genres in Finnish and in English, coming from many artists, however we haven't really introduced her to albums. So, a few days ago we were driving and listened all the way through This is acting by Sia, Whom she likes to sing to. After each song, we paused and Smallsteps gave her opinion about what each song meant, and at the end of the album, what the general theme was. A few songs were hard to listen for all of the words, but she did a good job of analysing and picked the general themes as overcoming adversity, no matter how she might feel.
She didn't use the word adversity.
Then my wife asked some grammar questions about the title "This is acting" and which meaning of acting I thought it was. My wife took it as a "fake it until you make it" form, where it is about pretending to be something in the hope to become it. But not only do I disagree with this, I think that the concept is pretty harmful.
Firstly, I think the "fake til make" concept is harmful because it doesn't actually make sense. If you are doing the job, you are that thing. Faking doing the job, isn't actually doing the job. I get that people don't see it in the same way, because they interpret "acting" from the sense of an actor in a play, pretending to be a doctor. They can never be a doctor just by acting it on stage.
Don't act it, be it.
And this is how I see the "acting" where it is the being of what is said, the performing of the actions required to get it done. And I think this because like Smallsteps interpreted, Sia is doing things regardless of how she feels. That isn't pretending to be something she is not, that is being the thing she needs to be at the time. Doing the necessary actions. Do you see the difference?
Essentially she is saying, "This is how you do it" by doing it.
So many people have excuses as to why they can't do this or that, and so many of those excuses aren't based on physical limitations, they are based on emotional limitations. They fell they can't so they don't. But they never seem to stop to question whether their feelings are valid, or if they are tricks of their own mind that hold them back for other reasons. The excuses are endless as to why people can't exercise, or eat healthy, or save money, or invest, or help others... or.... or... or...
The list goes on.
Yet, the people who are the most effective in this life are those who do what they need to do to meet their goals, regardless of how they feel. And the most interesting thing is, that the people who do this, also tend to be the most content with their life, and often feel that what they are doing is taking them where they want to go. Even though they also feel that it might be hard, stressful, and take a lot of energy.
Stress isn't bad, unless you think it is.
Ever notice that the people who avoid stressful situations and experiences, tend to be the most stressed? This is because they haven't learned how to manage stress, so they get flustered at the drop of a hat. The people who embrace difficulty and uncertainty however, tend to be pretty good at managing their stress, because they see it as just part of the process in order to get to where they want to be. And in order to get there, they have to do X, Y and Z, no matter how they feel.
And I think that this is something younger generations can learn more of, because they seem to be very emotionally fragile. And while there are many reasons for this, I think a major one is due to what and how they consume, where everything is on demand to give them just what they want, when they want it. But getting what you want, isn't the same as getting what you need.
But when many feel stressed, depressed, triggered and victimised, they look to remove what they see as the source of their pain, rather than learning how to toughen their resilience. They see the trigger as the cause of suffering, rather than the litmus test of their abilities. Removing the tests may provide immediate relieve, but it weakens the ability to learn and grow.
The constant stream of information isn't making our young people stronger, because it isn't designed to build them in the ways they need in order to face a complex world. They are able to pick what they experience, and what they choose is what makes them feel good in the moment. It is a pleasure-seeking process that ultimately leads to feeling worse, like a slippery slope of a drug addict that goes from having fun with friends, to turning tricks for their next hit. It is a process of degradation.
It is degrading.
When we act, we do. When we do the right things even when we don't feel like it, the right things still get done. So when we do feel like doing more, we are already further down the road than we would have been, doing things that are more interesting, more important, more valuable, and closer to our goals. We can not only see more progress, but we can get that sense of accomplishment from overcoming the challenge too.
Stop faking until you feel like it.
Act even if you don't.
Be the person you need to be.
Taraz
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