Tag: dip

I finally understood “The Dip” last night and realized I was a quitter.

The Dip, a term popularized by Seth Godin,  is the point in any venture when it gets tough. When you get in the ocean, you feel “The Dip” where the water starts to creep past your chin, and you are too short to move without relying on swimming. It is decision time, are you going to move forward and trust your arms or move backwards back to the safety of the beach? Are your friends on the beach waving you back or they could be further in the ocean waving you forward – or vice versa telling you to go to the other place without them. There isn’t a right answer by the way, the only thing guiding you is context and intuition.

When it is a dip, you swim further. When it is a cul-de-sac – meaning there is no end, you should get back to the beach.

I felt it when I was sitting in my acting class last night.

Some background – I decided to go do an acting class at the beginning of this year to help aid me with any public engagement that I do – so if I speak, tell jokes, or have to present, I would love the tools that actors have to make the job a lot easier. I ended up settling on doing a class with the Meisner technique, an acting technique that relies on your internal feeling to make the enviroment feel real.

Recently we have done independent activities, which forces you to do some acting with a partner while doing a mentally harsh task. It is as frustrating as it sounds.  Looking at my partner for the day I started to feel the water rise above my head. The Resistance started to dance in my head, giving me reasons to hate everyone around me.

Then I came to the realization that I am cul-de-sac minded. When I see something challenging, my first reaction is generally to get back to the beach. I gritted my teeth and doubled down. I don’t know how it is going to go, but I am going to see it through – then enjoy the beach.