***The World's a Stage. Command It.

What does a great actor like Sir Laurence Olivier have in common with a great executive like Jack Welch? At first glance, not much. But if you look a little deeper, you’ll see that brilliant actors and gifted business leaders share many critical skills. They command attention the moment they come into view. They use words, and body language to communicate emotions and ideas. They listen actively to everyone around them. They know how to inspire or frighten or astonish people just by using just their bodies, voices, and minds. So, let’s put aside the business books for a moment and look at one of the greatest books ever written for actors, To the Actor by Michael Chekhov. Chekhov (http://www.michaelchekhov.org/) was director of the Moscow Art Theater before he came to Hollywood and appeared in Hitchcock’s Spellbound and many other movies. Gregory Peck, Ingrid Bergman, and other greats studied acting with him. If you watch Chekhov in two different movies, he looks like two different actors. He was a magician, who could transform himself as the drama required. In To The Actor, Checkhov writes that our minds can work like creative engines if we free them from overly intellectual control. If you read the book, you will see that this principle can be applied to preparing the greatest role you will ever play--the starring role in the story of your own success. How does Checkhov’s system work? Let’s say you're an actor preparing a scene in which your character has to tell another character that her husband has just died. You could study the scene and make intellectual decisions (“I will enter the stage hanging my head sadly . . . "), but Chekhov has a better way. First read the scene, then close your eyes, and let your mind play it for you like a movie. Just watch. Your imagination will usually make astonishing suggestions that you could never have created by thinking academically. Maybe your character comes running onto the stage, for example, or laughs when given the bad news. Tell your imagination what you liked and what you disliked, and keep replaying the scene in your mind until you have something you are happy with--something extraordinary. The key is to imagine first, then intellectualize later. With practice, Chekhov’s system can show you a picture of where you want your life to go and help you build many of the skills you need to get there. Envision your own success by letting your imagination show you what you want to see. Close your eyes and watch. Afterwards, ask some questions. Were there a lot of people working with you, or were you on your own? Were you wearing an elegant suit or a pair of blue jeans? Did you seem to be in the country or the city? Let your creative mind feed information to you and then keep asking it to correct things that displeased you. A picture of your success will appear in stages, like a Polaroid print developing before your eyes. You can also use Checkhov’s system to prepare for specific challenges. Are you about to give some devastating news to your staff? Do you have to deliver the keynote address at an important convention? Feed the rough shape of those situations to the image-generating part of your mind and then stand back as your creativity kicks in and makes suggestions about what you should do. When you get your intellect out of the way, you will start to think like an artist. Astonishing things will happen. Your creative mind can show the way to the bright future that is waiting for you.