(Distinctions are subtleties of language that, when gotten, cause a shift in a belief, behavior, value or attitude.)

 

When attending a movie or a play you can have a similar experience. With each you are in an audience watching others (the actors) do what they do, though most people report the experience of watching a live performance, a play, has a different level of engagement for them than watching a recorded movie.

There is something extra and tangible to the live, spontaneous play, for even a well-rehearsed, long-running one has the every-moment opportunity for something unplanned to happen. That tension is absent in a movie, even a very good, compelling one.

There is the opportunity for another and bigger difference with a play. What if you are in the play, not just in the audience? What if you are the one who has the moment-by-moment chance for the spontaneous to happen?

You do, in the play which is your life.

Some seem to treat their life as if it is a canned movie simply running automatically with them as observers, interested observers to be sure, but behaving as if the script can’t be changed.

When you treat your life as the live-action, in-the-moment, spontaneous, always-subject-to-change play it really is, well, that’s engagement!

 

Coaching Point: What’s on the next page in the script you’re writing?

 

Copyright 2014 Steve Straus. All rights reserved.