Adversity Is Your Friend

Written by David Patrick Green

There’s nothing like life to teach one a lesson.  

Most of us can’t really learn the toughest lessons of life from others.  That’s probably because some of life’s lessons can’t simply be witnessed or recounted.  They have to be experienced.  You need to have the emotional muscle memory to keep you from making the same mistake twice.  You just hope that the experience you have that teaches you the lesson isn’t injurious…or worse.  Like in the case of drinking and driving.  I grew up in a time when it was quite common to drink and drive.  We all knew it was wrong but the consequences weren’t made clear enough to deter us.  I lost a couple of people to drinking and driving and had a few close calls myself.  Those were my lessons and they were very impactful.  The same can be said about acting experiences.  You need to make your own mistakes.  Acting is a very emotionally driven activity.  Actors are both naturally emotional (or may become that way) and take their craft personally.  We are also continually drawing off our emotions for our work and we have to create emotions that may never have existed within us before.  It is a demanding business.  Read more