Episode 283: The Benefit of Wisdom for the Actor

Private Coaching Today, I'm going to talk about the subject of Wisdom.  Wisdom is my favorite word in the American language.  God, do I love Wisdom. The reason why I love Wisdom is because Wisdom gives me power. And sometimes it isn't even the power of knowledge, but the power of knowing what to do.  And I don't have any script for this podcast or guidance for this podcast. I'm just talking to you about this subject because it is truly just the thing that I crave more of.  This past week I turned another year older. I help people to adjust their thoughts and their lives to work for them instead of against them. And, that's a really crucial thing because it's certainly something that I did a lot when I was younger.  I constantly worked against myself because I also was like, “Yeah I'm, I have so much energy and I'm so tough, I don't always have to be working for me.” Oh, would I like to go back and talk to that 20 year old. Becoming emotionally intelligent.  And how do I teach them to do that?  By teaching them to be emotionally self-sufficient. In order to be emotionally self-sufficient, I need to be very wise. So I'm going to talk a bit today about a couple of prayers that I like that help me to become more wise.  And the first one is very obvious. It is the serenity prayer.  So if you're listening to this, I'm going to ask you to write the serenity prayer down.  I'm going to give it to you as I'm writing. If you need to push pause, that's fine. So here's the serenity prayer.  “Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.” Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change. So write that down and then skip a couple of lines. Then I want you to write down the next line, which is “courage to change the things I can.” And then skip a couple of lines.  And wisdom to know the difference.  And wisdom to know the difference. And I always, when I'm writing down the serenity prayer, I always circle the word wisdom. Again, because it's something I want more of.  So let's go back to that first line, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.  Underneath that, I want you to write this: I cannot change or control other people, places, things, or situations.  So grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change.  I cannot change other people, places, things, or situations.  I cannot change or control other people, places, things, or situations.  Let's go to the second part.  Courage to change the things I can.  I can only handle or manage, handle/ manage myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions. I can only handle/ manage myself, my thoughts, my attitudes, my actions. That's the second part.  And the third part is, wisdom to know the difference.  Wisdom underneath that, right?  Wisdom to know the difference between what I cannot control, which is other people, places, things, and situations, and what I can handle, which is myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions.  So I am looking for the wisdom to be able to determine what I can do something about and what I cannot, because all anxiety, all unrest in me. It comes from my wanting to control something.  But here's the thing, that may not be my job. That may not be my job. My job is to handle or manage myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions.  And here's the thing, when you really focus on that, your life is busy.  You don't have time to control other things. You are not, you don't have time to control outcomes and other things like that. You gotta focus on your own life. You gotta focus on your own life.  The Universe is the pilot. I am the co pilot.  And every morning I wake up and I say, good morning universe, Peter Pamela Rose reporting for duty.  And I invite the Universe into my day. And I ask the Universe.  This, and this is what comes from the 12 step programs. I pray for the knowledge of your will for me today and the power to carry that out. I pray for the knowledge or the wisdom of your will for me today, and the power to carry that out.  But understand, I am not asking for the power to control. No. I am asking for the power to manage and handle myself, my attitudes, my thoughts, and my actions.  See, my job isn't to control. My job is to handle. My job is to manage.  That's what my job is. That's what my job is as co-pilot. So every morning I differentiate, using my wisdom that I have acquired.  I use my wisdom to differentiate. Pilot, co pilot. Peter Pamela Rose, you're a co pilot. Reporting for duty. I pray for the knowledge of your will for me and the power to carry that out. Now the thing about wisdom is also there is a little bit of humility involved here because I need to acknowledge another little phrase I'm going to throw to you, which is, I can't.  The Universe can. Let the Universe.  I can't deal with this situation, but the Universe can. I'm going to let the Universe, but sometimes it's very difficult to admit to ourselves that there is nothing we can do. All of these things, especially that ability to differentiate between what is my job, manage and handle, and what the Universe's job is to control or do whatever the Universe does.