I want to talk to you about a technique that I teach my mentorship students and this technique deals with certainty.
What the heck am I talking about? It’s like confidence but it’s something that you can evoke in yourself that can be very hopeful. It’s called certainty.
Let me explain it like this.
Oprah Winfrey. You know who she is, right?
That woman, when she says stuff, she is quite certain about what she’s saying. CEO’s of companies, when they’re talking they are certain even if they don’t know the answers, even if they’re afraid they’re still certain.
They bring certainty! They have certainty. People love people that have certainty. If I walk on set looking like I’m not sure what to do with myself, then everybody gonna is going to feel uncomfortable working with you because you are uncertain of what to do.
You don’t give them what they need. They need certainty from you.
So when you walk on a set and you say, “Hey Joe how is it going? Hey Tina! Hey, ohh I forgot your name. What was your name again? Oh cool. Joe, sorry! Sometimes I’m bad with names… Joe, Joe, Joe, Joe got it, got it!”
You bring certainty and how do you bring it? You’ll think, “Hey Janet it’s easy for you, you’ve been doing it for seventeen years”.
Well I wanna show you a little technique today that you can use to bring yourself certainty. What you can do when you need certainty [and you should actually do this every single day] is you need to evoke certainty in your body.
We want to use our body to give ourself certainty.
A lot of you guys are actors and if you’re not, you’re directors so we are all creative people here. I want you right now stand up and I want you to pretend or be, act or whatever you want to call it be somebody that’s very uncertain. Someone who is worried, or uncertain – they’re not sure of themselves.
I want you to be this person. Just stand there and be this person.
Now, when I’m uncertain, how does my voice sound? My voice doesn’t sound very strong, in fact it sounds like I can barely get the words out.
How do I stand? My shoulders are kinda hunched over. I don’t have a strong stance.
How does my face look? Probably kind of sad, droopy maybe not enough color on my face. I’m just uncertain. I’m just not sure how to do this. I’m just little nervous, I might be wringing my hands.
What do my eyes look like? They are down on the ground. I’m just not feeling certain so I’m looking down a lot. I just don’t feel confident or powerful.
Now you just use your body to put yourself in uncertain state. If you walk into an audition in uncertain state, how do you think it will go? You’ll probably think something like, “I can not ever go to an audition.”
Now, let’s use our body to get into a certain state.
What’s a certain state look like?
What do your eyes look like when you’re in a certain state? Are they kinda sparkly, are the kind of smiling?
What does your face look like when you’re certain that you can do something? When you’re certain that this role is yours? That you’re going to give it your best shot and when you’re certain that this is what you meant to be doing, what does your face look like?
Does it have a lot of brightness to it? Is it turned on and happy looking? What is your body look like? Are you standing up tall? What is your voice sound like? What is my voice sound like?
I am certain that what I’m telling you is valuable and I want you to get it. I want you to go out and do this now. I want you to get it when you talk to somebody that might be making you uncertain.
I want you to use your body. You can use your body now that you’re aware how to do it, which is you’re just putting yourself in a certain state.
It comes from your head of course then your body follows, or you can just say, when I’m in a certain state I stand up straight. My shoulders are back, I’m smiling, my eyes are sparkling, and my voice is strong. This is what I am and wow I feel pretty certain now, I feel pretty damn good.
Get yourself in that state. Use your body to get yourself in that state and when you put it out there, you will feel differently. You feel certain and you use your body to get yourself there. You can do this every day, you know, if you need to get ready to do anything to have a conversation just do it cause you want to feel good. Put yourself in that certain state because people love to be around people that are certain. They love to be around people that are confident.
What’s gonna get you where you want to be?
You have to be certain. This is what I’m meant to do! This is what I want to do and this is what I love doing. Yes!
You’ll begin to say things like, “So nice to meet you I would love to work with you. I’m ready to work! You gotta shoot next week? I’m ready! What’s it about? I would love to get in the ocean and swim with those sharks! Yes I would! No, what’s it about? We’re gonna be on a boat, on a sail boat? Oh my gosh! Wow well I could take a seasickness pill, no problem!”
Remember that uncertainty sounds like, “oh nice to meet you. Well I was hoping that maybe I could give you my information, maybe you can call me.”
That’s the lesson for today. Next time you feel uncertain, remember your body. Remember your voice. Remember your face. Remember how you stand. Just do that and then before you know it, certainty will come.
Once you focus on being certain in who you are, it will be incredibly hard to fall back into uncertainty. I can’t even do it anymore. You’ll be in the same boat shortly.
Talk to you guys soon!
