Serving is an ideal way to receive

            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?