38. Core-ageous

Core-ageous

If you always do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten!” – Anthony Robbins


At our very core, when we peel away the onion layers, we are people who want to live the most wonderful and exciting lives we possibly can. I mean really – do you ever sit at a dinner table with guests and say “oh I love having a safe life. I wouldn’t even drive out to get milk if I had my way”. Hell no! I honestly don’t think I have ever heard someone say that.  And yet, more often than not we allow fear to drive us back in the same motion we have always followed. We let consistency dictate our lives.  We forget that we are actually bored by our own routine.  Ever arrived a destination and forgotten how you got there… auto pilot.  We do the same things we’ve always done hoping to get a different result.  We will watch people make silly mistakes and vow not to make them, only to follow in their footsteps and waste a year doing the exact same thing. 

The driver – sometimes it is fear, sometimes it’s laziness, sometimes it is a lack of money,  sometimes it is just because it’s a Monday. How do we make ourselves courageous?  How do we help build ourselves up so our fundamental “core” screams at us to do things differently every single day. To make sure we don’t settle. 

Really, it is this that makes makes us core-ageous! We must work our core like a muscle.  And this includes working out our heart, our mind, and our soul… And we must have the courage to change.  I am certain as actors we are already busy putting lots of makeup on, using brilliant skin care regimes to ensure there is longevity in our looks, and exercising our little butts off so we can be the next Brad Pitt with excellent guns, or Angelina Jolie with a body of a starlet.  But what are we doing for our internal core.

How are you becoming core-ageous?
What are you doing differently every single day?  If I am honest with myself, I need to checkin about this more.  I want to achieve SO many things this year, and I need to work to ensure that I actually am accountable to myself and others.  I do yoga so I keep my mind healthy, and when I am most troubled and unsettled, it gives me a place to go and find quiet again. But do I frequently consider when the last time was that I learnt a new skill to see if there’s something that I’d like to start learning right now. I also really need to take a mental stocktake monthly (even daily) on how I’m treating others around me, and how I am emotionally treating myself. This year I have shared some of my goals with friends about these very topics in the hope that they’ll remind me about what I said I’d do if I slip up.  

Recently I read a wonderful article 3 Awesome Tips To Clear The Energetic Clutter’ by Renita and it really helped me to focus on some items that I hadn’t considered.  Every year I sit down and set goals and plan my next twelve months, but it had never occurred to me that the biggest, meatiest things I added to those lists might be the very things I ignore until the last moment, and sometimes don’t even achieve.  I really recommend reading this article to review if you have your New Year in check.  Granted it is February and many of us are already up and running…but there must be even a few of you who are haunted by how quickly your first month has passed and how little you’ve achieved.  Is that you? I have also written my goals down in my diary hoping I will stumble upon them later this year and take an inventory of where I am at. It’s just like finding a £10 note you forgot about in your winter jacket 🙂

All of these things help to make our core stronger, and help us be more core-ageous as actors.  Because courage is about being the Lion in the Wizard of Oz.  It’s about you being truthful to yourself and saying what I’m doing right now, at this moment, is not enough.  What if you could have everything you ever dreamed of? All you need is to exercise those mind muscles so you can do and be everything you want to be.  But you must be willing and open to challenge yourself to change.  You must be ready to try something new each day (even if it’s one of the simplest silly things ever – saying hi to a complete stranger and genuinely asking how their day is going).  And you must be willing to fail occasionally, and a lot. It is about finding ways to exercise your internal muscles, not just your exterior.


It has been said by many wise people that there are things we can do to create new habits, to shape our lives, and to become the very people we aspire to be. 

Today, go out and be core-ageous. 

3 thoughts on “38. Core-ageous

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *