Welcome back!
And thanks for reading! Leaning Forward. It’s one of those little business jargon sayings like Circling Back, floating it back to the top of your inbox, taking it offline, and others that have come into vogue. While I understand how they came about, most of them drive me a little crazy, but this one, leaning forward, is important not only in business and acting, but in life as well. This week let’s talk about leaning forward.
REMEMBER:
Just a reminder here that when I use the term “actor” I mean it to encompass all forms of acting including voice, stage, and screen. Yeah, I know I say this every week, but it falls under the heading of “The things that go without saying are the things that most need to be said”. What follows applies relatively equally to all of these forms of acting.
Origins
The origins of the phrase are a little muddy, but it has been around for a very long time. It appears it was originally used during the Cold War era in military and espionage circles to indicate a willingness to take risks to get the job done. It seems to have come into more common usage in the 1970’s and was one of then Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s favorite phrases.
In Business
Leaning forward started its business life with much the same meaning. To lean forward meant to take risks to maximize profits and grow your business. It very likely became mainstream precisely because the defense Secretary used the phrase often when addressing the press. The meaning and usage has morphed somewhat since it was first used and now means something more akin to being eager or anxious.
Bending over backward
I find it interesting that the phrase bending over backward is similar. Bending over backward indicates a willingness to do whatever it takes, to go out of your way, to accomplish something. Funny that the two phrases are so closely defined yet one has you moving ahead while the other has you moving back.
In life
In life, to lean forward is to push hard for the attainment of a goal. To lean forward though, is a bit more than working toward a goal; it is to work to achieve the goal quickly. More quickly than average. There can still be an element of risk involved, because reaching for a goal almost always contains some risk…but trying to achieve it quickly means having to put yourself out there when you don’t feel “ready”. A perceived risk of failure is probably the biggest risk. It can be frightening to lean into the achievement of your goal.
“Normal”
I mean, what is normal anyway? In my mind, normal is average. The usual progression of things. Most of us when attempting to attain a goal look at what the usual steps to achieving that particular thing are, and then proceed down that path. It is unusual to push hard to achieve things faster than normal, but in my experience, it is not unusual at all to desire achieving it faster than normal. So why isn’t everyone leaning forward? I think it because of two things (probably more, but this is my blog, and I am going to say two). Effort and fear.
Effort
No one will be surprised to know that to lean forward requires a lot more effort than following a “normal” path. While it always takes a lot of work to achieve any goal worth achieving, trying to speed up the process requires an exponentially larger amount of effort. Most of us want “work life balance” (another one of those jargon-y phrases) and are not willing to sacrifice that balance to succeed more quickly.
Fear
I mentioned it earlier, but fear of failure plays a huge role in just following the normal path to success in a given endeavor. It is far easier and much less risky to follow a well-trodden path than it is to blaze a trail. It seems like the chance of success is greater that way. But, in my opinion (I mean, it IS my blog, so my opinion matters) the chance of failure is not any greater when leaning forward, you just fail earlier. That could be a good thing.
If you are going to fail anyway…
Failure is not a bad thing. Yeah, I know it FEELS bad, but as long as you react to failure the right way it is actually just a learning experience. Failing early gives you more time to fall back and regroup. It is a chance to decide if that goal you were reaching for is attainable by you at all, or if you just need to adjust and try again. The more quickly you achieve failure, the more time you have to adjust. And let’s face it, we are all going to fail at things. Probably a lot. I know I have.
An example
We all, or at least most of us, went to high school. We graduated (hopefully anyway) around 18, then headed off to college and graduated at around 22. Then, it’s off to our chosen profession. Normal. I had the pleasure of dating a girl in high school who had other plans. I say dating but as you’ll see, she really didn’t have much time for actual dating.
Class load
This girl took a full load of advanced classes, starting in middle school actually, and then took additional classes at the local community college in the evenings. She had one-and-a-half times the classes of a “normal” student, like me. She was leaning forward before leaning forward was cool. The result: She graduated high school at 16, was in college at 17, graduated at 19 and was a full-fledged nurse by 20. Today she is a doctor (before she was 30) and of course our dating didn’t work out because she was way too smart for me and I was a knucklehead. I still can’t figure out what she saw in me.
Here’s the thing…
By leaning forward, she expended a lot more energy up front, to reap rewards for a longer period of time. By the time the rest of us were starting a career she was already three promotions into hers. And today, she not only has the time but the money to kick back and just enjoy life. (She doesn’t, she’s still doctoring, but she could, and I know because we are still FB friends). Not that the rest of us weren’t successful. It just took us longer and we have less time left to enjoy that success.
Balance
We all enjoy balance in our life. But most of us see balance in the immediate moment. Imagine a teeter-totter (do they still make those or are they unsafe now?) where the fulcrum is in the middle. Place the same weight on each end, and you get balance. Now imagine that same teeter-totter with the fulcrum closer to one end. If you put a heavy weight on the short end and a lighter weight on the other, you can still achieve balance. That’s what leaning forward does. All the work and risk up front, all the life on the back end. We typically want balance today, when we should be striving for balance over the course of our life.
What does that have to do with acting?
Well, I’m glad you asked. Most actors I know today are also working a full-time job to support their families that takes up a lot of their time. By the time they need to work on their acting career, they are exhausted and can’t find the time. So, they work at it, let’s say, less strenuously than if they could devote all their time to it. They fail to submit, or when they do they miss auditions. The result? They either struggle for a long time to achieve success as an actor or give up because it just isn’t happening. That makes the path to success a much longer, and in the end a much more difficult path.
It’s too late for me!
No. It’s not. OK, it’s probably too late to graduate at 16 and be a full-fledged doctor before you’re 30th birthday. But it’s never too late to reach for a goal, and leaning forward will help you achieve it faster. So…bend over backward to start leaning forward today!