Book 144 - A Year of Magical Learning (Part 1/3)

Reflection Title: Method Acting

Book – Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson (Reflection 1/3)

Book Description: This memoir is the product of a profound journey of self-knowledge, a reckoning with all that your will can get you and all that it can leave behind. Written with the help of Mark Manson, author of the multi-million-copy bestseller The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, Will is the story of how one person mastered his own emotions, written in a way that can help everyone else do the same. Few of us will know the pressure of performing on the world's biggest stages for the highest of stakes, but we can all understand that the fuel that works for one stage of our journey might have to be changed if we want to make it all the way home. The combination of genuine wisdom of universal value and a life story that is preposterously entertaining, even astonishing, puts Will the book, like its author, in a category by itself.

Reflection:

I didn’t know what to expect when I started this book to be honest. I knew I’d probably enjoy this experience as I’ve always been a big fan of Will Smith’s work. I grew up at the perfect age to have been basically his target audience for almost everything he produced. I loved his show the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, Big Willy Style that was one of my favorite albums ever and I played it on a loop in my portable CD player for a year when I first heard it as an 8th grader, enjoyed most of his movies (especially MIB and Independence Day), and the Fresh Prince theme song is something I feel like I still accidentally sing at least 2 times a month still to this day.

While I’ve always been a big fan of his work, I don’t know that I’ve ever really cared to want to know much more about him personally and that was totally fine with me. After Felicia and I finished our last audio book that we were listening to together, she suggested that we try Will as our next listen. I said, “You want to listen to Will Smith’s autobiography??? Why?” She said, “I don’t know…I heard it was good I guess”. I said, “You know it is 16 hours...right? That is a long time to commit to a story that we are listening to together as we usually only did like an hour or 2 a week. That is going to take us months to finish!” She said, “I don’t care, let’s do it”.

When the wife says to do something, you do it. So, I downloaded the book and surprisingly within just a few short weeks later we were finished. We devoured this together quicker than any book we’ve ever done before. I was pretty amazed at how much we both were into it and overall we both loved it! Just like everything else Will does, his memoir was incredibly entertaining, and the experience seemed to fly by where we were both wrapped up in the whole story of his life. Not only was it enjoying, but I also actually learned a lot. So much so that I decided I would break from some of my rules of only 1 reflection per book unless it was a top five favorite and write a multi-part reflection as I have a few thoughts I just can’t get out of my mind and I want to share.

The first big lesson I learned from Will was about Method Acting…let me explain.

Will’s first real movie was a film called Six Degrees of Separation. I’ve never saw it and have never heard of it. Will said he choose this film, and his role as a con man named Paul, because it was so far away from his persona as the Fresh Prince and he wanted to prove to Hollywood he could really act and wasn’t just a one trick pony. To prepare to play this role, Will decided to try method acting where he would pretend to literally become Paul in his real life for many months before filming began to immerse himself into the mindset of character.

It worked…a little too well.

Will got the results and validation he was looking for from Hollywood, but it didn’t come without a cost. When Will came back to his “real life” after filming, he still had traces of Paul all over his personality and it was showing. His friends, wife, and fellow co-workers on the Fresh Prince were worried. They could see that Will was no longer “Will”, but Will couldn’t see it himself. He said that eventually, months after filming, he finally was able to find “Will” again, but he realized the power in what he had just done. What really was “Will” in the first place? What really makes up your identity? There was a lot there to unpack.

This idea of Method Acting and becoming someone new got me thinking about my own life and my past few years. I realized that I’ve been method acting myself, except my method acting isn’t going away any time soon. I’m just a different person now.

Almost overnight my whole life changed. Everything that was “Chris” before Emilia went away the day that we lost her. My world was blown into pieces and I was staring at a blank canvas. While that was terrifying and scary, it was also a blank canvas in which I had the power do decide what new Chris would reappear in this world.

I choose to start fresh and honor my daughter in all that I do by living a life of values that she showed me how to live in her short life. After we lost Emilia, I unknowingly slowly began adopting a whole new persona of Chris + Emilia. She showed me how to live a life of values, how to be courageous, how to fight, and to love every second of this world. I vowed to her that I would live the lessons she taught me and make sure the world knew of her life through my actions in what I call “Living for 2”.

Since that day, I’ve been living this purpose that I feel in my core, and it only grows stronger each and every day as long as I continue to express our values into this world in as much as I can each day.

I don’t even hardly recognize my own “self” anymore since the day I met Emilia. I know I’m still Chris, but I don’t feel the same, think the same, or act the same anymore. That is crazy to think about sometimes, but at the same time empowering for anyone following along with this journey.

The lesson is that you can literally be anyone and anything you want to be in this world if you are willing to work at it. Who you are today doesn’t have to be who you must be forever! Don’t wait, like me, for some forced destruction of your world to bring change like this to your life if that is what you seek. If you always let your values be your compass and do your best to live them each day, you will eventually find yourself on that new path if that is what you wish.

Question: How could you leverage values to method act like the person you want to be impact your life?

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Links:

What is The Year of Magical Learning? An Introduction

YOML Podcast Discussion - Coming Soon

YOML Bookstore - Will by Will Smith and Mark Manson