I had an audition a few days ago that
began, well, let’s just say a little hectic.
When I arrived, I ran into a couple of actresses I knew who kindly
directed me to sign in with the casting assistant. Then I learned that though I had a callback
time, we were auditioning in the order on the sign in sheet. And the staff was over an hour behind.
Thankfully,
that is not norm. Still on this night, I
was not happy. I had driven a few hours
to get there, and I received the audition notice the same day. The audition line was outside the building
and it was not warm at all.
I
complained. I was perturbed. After a while, I decided to walk inside the
lobby area to stay a little warmer. I
met another actor inside who had shown up because a friend of a friend of a
friend knew the casting director. But,
he had no script. He didn’t even know
what the roles were.
I
pulled up the audition notice on my phone.
We looked at all of the characters for men together to see where he
might fit. Since they were all the same age range, reading for any of the roles
seemed like it would work for him.
I
stopped the next actor who came out of the audition. I asked him if the other actor could use his
script. He handed it to him with no
questions asked. Now, my new actor
friend could prepare for the audition.
Because
I had been standing close to the action of the auditions for a while, I had
learned the casting assistant’s pattern.
I knew when she instructed the next person to enter, where they were
supposed to stand and how to keep the rotation running. With the lag time in the schedule, even she
was frustrated and stepped away from time to time to take a call.
To
keep things moving, I stepped in and keep the actors moving through the
audition. Before long, the casting assistant
gave me her coat to wear. Then, without
me asking, she sent me in early to audition, well before I was supposed to go
by the sign up list. I even went before the actresses who told me to sign up
when I arrived.
It
was almost like a miracle. Instead of
focusing on the long line, the cold, the wait, I began focusing on others
around me. And like magic, I no longer
had “problems” but opportunities to serve others. That’s when my blessing came.
I
would like to say that I made the choice consciously. I did not consciously choose to turn my focus away from
what I perceived as a problem. And
honestly, I didn’t give to get either. Perhaps
it was an unconscious choice based on my own work with personal
development.
Regardless
of how it happened, as soon as I sat in my car, I knew that my shift in
thinking about what was wrong and focusing on others totally changed my
night.
But,
I am not advocating putting yourself last and everyone else before you. That’s the topic of another blog. However, truly deciding not to focus on a
situation as a problem can literally
change your life.
How
can you serve today?
