Your state of mind can affect you in many ways. Your mood, your appetite, how well you sleep, the whole shebang. Where your life goes is tied together with where your head’s at. It should come as no surprise that your creativity and creative energy is influenced by your state of mind, too. This is especially important for actors, and artists in general. It’s not just our careers that thrive on creative energy. Who we are as individuals thrive on it, and when our mindset gets thrown off our creativity goes with it.
What is Mindset?
Words like ‘mindset’ and ‘mindfulness’ are floating around the internet quite a bit these days. That’s probably because of all the mounting research which shows the connection to mindset and overall health and well-being. Mindfulness practices like journaling and meditation used to be relatively niche, but now they’re everywhere. The meaning of mindset can get a little muddied as a result, so I’ll keep it simple.
At its most basic level, mindset is your attitude, your beliefs, and your values. It can refer to how these influence the way you see yourself and the world around you, or the philosophy of life of an entire group of people. It’s shaped by things like where you live, your lived experiences, the people in your immediate circle, and the culture you grow up in. There are researchers who break it down further into types of mindset. These typically include growth mindset, fixed mindset, and abundance mindset, but there are others. Today we’re only looking at the concept of mindset.
What is Creativity?
OK, so that might be a silly question, but I’m going to ask anyway just so everyone is on the same page. Creativity can be defined in many different ways, but I’m going to follow Wikipedia’s definition– ‘Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and valuable is formed’. The key word here is ‘valuable’, because it excludes creative exercises and practices that don’t apply to career actors (like daydreaming). We usually think of it in the context of creating something, like writing or painting, or applying our creative ideas in new ways, like inventions and problem solving.
Some actors dive into writing, sure, but not all of them. Creativity is much broader than that. So now that we’ve defined creativity, let’s look more specifically at creativity for actors.
Creativity for Actors
Acting is an artform. Anyone who says otherwise doesn’t understand what acting truly is. It’s called ‘performance art’ for a reason, after all. The idea that actors aren’t artists probably comes from the misconception that actors don’t do anything other than, well, act! They read someone else’s writing, they follow someone else’s directions, they’re just a vehicle for someone else’s vision like colors on an artist’s palette.
This isn’t just wrong, it’s backwards! If actors themselves aren’t creative thinkers, they can’t bring that vision to life. They do it through tone and gestures, not by imitating movements and feelings. Actors need to get inside the heads and hearts of the characters they embody, which requires a lot of creative thinking. Auditions, improvisation, making scenes for demo reels, and running a production are other examples of creativity for actors in action.
Sense memory is a prime example of both creativity for actors and branding for actors. It’s hard to create an effective brand without using some creative thinking and problem solving after all. And the most effective branding for actors comes from tapping into who you are at your core. Sense memory is a method acting technique in which you draw from your lived experiences and memories to amplify your performance. Actors do this through engaging the senses or focusing on a memory that elicits a strong emotional response.
Mindset for Actors
I’ll say it again- the most effective method of branding for actors comes from tapping into who you are deep down. The things that matter to you, the things you believe in, your approach to life…sound familiar?
When you adopt a new, more productive way of thinking you open your mindset to make room for growth, exploration, and personal development. And what’s the mechanism behind these new ways of thinking? Yeah, you guessed it- creativity. Without mindset, creative thinking flops. Without creative thinking, you’ll struggle to improve your mindset.
Every ‘What if?’, ‘How come?’, and ‘Why not?’ that you’ve ever asked came from a desire to learn more or try something new. Mindset and creative problem solving in action. It’s something that all human beings should work on, but actors need it to indulge their inner artist and live their best life.
Let me know in the comment section if you’d like to read more content on mindset for actors! There’s plenty more to look into! Or you can check out my actor career development program, and learn how your mindset can make or break your acting career.