In the mastery of any skill, you follow this pattern…
You start to learn something—it’s exciting!
You get to a certain point and feel great because of how much you’ve learned!
Then it gets hard. And you plateau.
If you stick with the “thing,” whatever it is, you will probably repeat this pattern dozens…maybe even hundreds of times.
This is where I’ve been lately. On a plateau.
So the journey begins!
When I was home, in Wisconsin, my sister and I went on a 15 mile bike ride with my dad and stepmom. Even though it was the evening, it was over 90 degrees out, and the first two and a half miles was just rough gravel on a slight incline, so it felt like we weren’t progressing at all.
I thought to myself “This was a huge mistake! I haven’t been on a bike in two years, and there is no way that I’m going to make it 15 miles!” My legs were burning, and I was exhausted. I drank half my water in the first few miles. Biting flies kept eating my shoulders.
Why isn’t the view changing? Am I in purgatory?
That’s how I feel about voiceover right now. I feel like I’m working my butt off, and yet getting nowhere fast.
I realize I can’t continue to go this hard at it, because I can barely breathe, and honestly, I’m not enjoying the journey right now.
For the past three months, I was in the VO Dojo Nth Degree program. I do the monthly pro workouts with Atlanta Voiceover Studio. Recently, I had a coaching session with Mary Lynn Wissner to brush up my commercial skills, and then did three sessions with Jeff Howell to work on promo. Networking on LinkedIn. Listening to Clubhouse chats about the industry. Meeting with my accountability group. Watching sessions that I missed at my last conference. Auditioning like crazy. Marketing myself. Writing this blog.
Back on the bike trail…
Eventually, after the plateau, the trail winds downward and you pick up speed. And it gets cooler. And then you get to the railroad tunnel. Without being able to see the light at the end, you must dismount from your bike and walk in pitch darkness for a mile, trusting that the end exists. The tunnel is cold and wet. Flashlights help a little bit, but you still step in puddles and have to be careful to not fall in the creek that flanks both sides of the path. But the cold is a welcome relief from the heat, and walking is a respite from biking.
Into the darkness, no end in sight…
I have walked this tunnel countless times in my life with my family. On a really clear day, you can see the light at the end when you enter. This time, because of the humidity, we couldn’t see the exit to the tunnel until we were almost out.
That light still looks a ways off…
Having to slow down for the tunnel means that once you’re back on the bike, you already feel like you’re moving faster by comparison.
And then right after that, you hit a steep incline, and you have to push REALLY hard to get up it, but it feels different, because your elevation changes quickly and you can see how high you get in a really short distance. Then you are on another plateau for a few miles, but it feels so much easier by comparison with the first one.
During that really brutal first stretch, my dad and sister and I stopped at a little bridge to look for fish in the water below, but my stepmom kept right on going. It meant that she got ahead of us temporarily, but she eventually tired and we caught up with her. At the end of our trip, we decided to come back and do it again the next day…but my stepmom decided she’d had enough and didn’t come with us for round two.
My speed demon stepmom (center) and my sister
I’ve been acting like my stepmom where voiceover is concerned, racing toward some indefinite end point that doesn’t really exist.
The other day, talking to my accountability group about how hard the ups and downs have been hitting me lately, I realized I’m pushing myself to improve faster than is feasible to expect.
I was reminded of something that happened about seven years ago in acting class. For three scenes in a row, I had gotten the same not-so-great feedback. After the third, I cried to my scene partner. I told her how frustrated I was because I wasn’t getting anywhere.
She said “Billie, you’re growing. Growing hurts.”
Smart woman. She was right.
Growth is not linear. It is not a steady process.
Sometimes it’s visible and happens very fast, and we feel great.
And other times, growth is frustratingly and painfully slow, imperceptible until we break through.
Sometimes conditions for growth just aren’t ideal. We are stressed, emotionally or financially, and our energies are not focused on our growth. Cannot be focused on our growth.
The temp at 8:03pm on July 5th…not the ideal conditions for a fifteen mile bike ride, but we did it
Take it easy through those sections of the journey where it feels so much like things should be moving faster. Where you feel like you’re not getting anywhere, and WHY DON’T I HAVE MY SHIT FIGURED OUT ALREADY I THOUGHT THAT I FIXED THIS ONGOING HABIT/PROBLEM/TENDENCY BUT NOPE, HERE IT IS REARING ITS UGLY HEAD AGAIN!?
Be gentle with yourself. Stop thinking you need to have it all figured out.
It’s really important to give ourselves a breather once in a while, especially when conditions around us aren’t favorable.
In this voiceover journey, I guess I’d like to be the one who stops once in a while to enjoy the view, and at the end of the day says “Let’s do this again tomorrow!” instead of the one who doesn’t come back.
You with me?
Stop and smell the deer once in a while!
