By day I’m an Editor and Producer for a video production company, producing documentary, corporate and promotional films. It was during filming on location a couple of years ago that I had the sudden realisation that changed my entire outlook and attitude to life.
It was in the fleeting few seconds after the cameraman had confirmed he was ‘rolling’ . . . the presenter waited expectantly . . . a silence fell across the set . . . and we waited for the director to utter the word that would begin the scene.
“Action!”
It was in that moment that I realised that up until that time, in some strange way, I had been waiting for an imaginary director to call ‘Action!’ on a production that was unimaginatively titled ‘My Life’. You know – my ‘real’ life. The one where I challenge myself, get fit, try new hobbies, write that novel – all those things that I’d stuffed in to the file marked ‘when I’m older/have more time’. If you haven’t worked it out for yourself, I’ll let you in to a little secret. That file you’ve been saving for the future is labelled incorrectly – it should read ‘REGRETS’. And as someone far more eloquent than I said, ‘I would sooner regret the things I did do, rather than the things I didn’t.’
I see now that I was subconsciously waiting for a different part of my life to start, twiddling my thumbs expecting someone or something to tell me when it was time to begin. I don’t think I’m the only person labouring under this misapprehension. It seems that most people are waiting for that new scene to commence, the one where you are the star and everything comes good in the end.
DON’T WAIT.
You are wasting time.
Here’s another cliche for you – ‘There is no dress rehearsal for life’. You’re living it. Right now. That marathon you always talked about doing? Go run it. You wanted to learn to play the trombone? Go play it. You wanted to cover yourself in feathers and spend a day being a chicken? Well . . . that’s slightly weird, but whatever floats your boat, sailor.
For me, it was losing weight, getting fit, running a half marathon, writing fiction and anything else that I can think of day by day and minute by minute – because that is exactly how you should be approaching life.
Be. In. The. Moment.
Still waiting for someone to call ‘Action!’ on your life? Well, here it comes . . .
ACTION!!
Also to celebrate the first day of the challenge I’d like to send out a special thanks to the founder Arlee Bird, click over to his site to show your support.
Follow the blog during the challenge for more writing tips, inspirational life posts, short fiction, film-inspired articles and even some songs with audio recordings. In the meantime, I would love to hear how you have called ‘Action!’ on your life, your writing and anything else you would like to share, so feel free to comment below.
Aww what a well-written entry! It made me think and inspired me to act as well. Thank you for this.
Will be looking forward to the rest of your posts.
Hi Dee. Thanks for stopping by and I’m glad you could relate to the post. I think it’s very easy to just get wrapped up in day to day life and forget that we only have one shot at it.
Love it!
All my life I have times when I act and reach a goal then sometimes miss the next time my life says ‘action’..
Each year I give myself goals for the next. That’s how I wrote my novels, got involved in Artists open studios and bought my house. Now on the lose weight ‘action’ goal..
Looking forward to the rest of your alphabet.
Hi Lynne. Yes, setting goals is definitely the key. My post for the letter W is on a similar theme. I look forward to swinging by your blog shortly to see what you’ve been up to!
Welcome to day one. I agree – action not regrets.
Thanks Sally and welcome to you too. I shall pop over to see what you’ve been up to.
Excellent post, very motivational! I’m a stickler for goal setting when it comes to chasing my dreams, otherwise they’d just float away in the “regrets” file, as you say!
Is the chicken thing a personal goal of yours? Haha.
Haha. Thanks for the kind words Catherine. And as regards the chicken thing . . . . Sssh! It’s only ever in the privacy of my own coop!
Thanks for this timely wake up call. I’m so bad at that mañana thing. Point taken. I shall start living life now… Or after the A to Z anyway! And may I join you in a huge thanks to Arlee. I’m on my way over to his blog next.
Rosalind Adam is Writing in the Rain
Haha – yes, we can play catch-up with life in May! Thanks for stopping by.
Enjoyed your post Wayne, very well written, I can completely identify with it too! Good luck with the challenge, speak to you soon.
Thanks Maria. See you soon.
Haha, this is so inspirational in comparison to my first post (entitled – Argh!). Great stuff!
Haha, Lisa. Aargh is just as valid and it’s definitely something we can all relate to. I’ll make sure I have a read. Thanks for the kind words.
Thanks!
I’m number 1257 on the list. Glad you can relate, lol.
Excellent post. I often find myself needing a call to action. Thank you for the inspiration.
Thank you so much, Donna. Really inspires me to be able to inspire you and others. Looking forward to checking out more of your stuff too.
What an awesome post! I am very responsible, but a total slacker when it comes to doing the things I want to do. I was going to run my first 5k on St. Patrick’s day. Did I do it? Nope. I let a little cold get in the way of my goal. But, today is the first day of the rest of my life, so I am going to usurp the director and call “Action!” myself.
Good luck with the challenge. To quote the Terminator, “I’ll be back.”
Thanks Pam – really great to hear your feedback and it’s never too late to start cracking on with things. I can definitely relate to the running thing – just focus on how great you will feel after you finish the run. That shower afterwards and whatever foody treat you reward yourself with will make it all worthwhile.
Hey Wayne,
Good to see your start to the challenge! It’s funny how we all go through a feeling like this at some point… As we get older we value time more and realize we’ve been waiting on a director to let us know when it is time to go into action. Ironically we find that we are that direct
Sorry typing this on phone…. Argh!!
Ironically we find that we are that director we’ve been waiting for.
For me this last year I finally decided to take action and start writing more so I finally learned the technical aspects of opening a blog and as you know launched it in February. But there are a lot of other parts of my life where my director will soon be coming to.
Thanks for this post. Good luck!
Jose
Thanks Jose and great to hear you’re taking charge of things and moving forward with your blog – which I have already said is a really interesting idea.
Great post for day one!
http://www.shellygoodmanwright.com/apps/blog/
Thanks a million, Shelly. I’ll be sure to swing by your blog tomorrow/today! Apologies – I have been out performing at a wedding tonight hence my late replies to some of your comments.
i concur, good sir!
Cheers, Rah!
Beautifully said! I love it.
Really appreciate your feedback Delia. Glad that the post had the desired effect – I can’t promise the same level of profundity for all of the posts, but I will aim to keep you all entertained!
I recently had my call for action and I entered the new world, ‘online’, got say I’m having more fun than I ever imagined. I’m hooked.
Great post! I think I need someone to just randomly jump out at me and shout, “Action!” I think this would greatly improve my productivity.
We need a little hologram guy jumping out of the laptop and shouting “action”, that would be a good app!
Hi Erin. Thanks for the feedback – I agree, about the little man. We could call him Action Man . . . Oh hang on, that’s been done before. I look forward to reading your posts later.