Unfortunately, many of us are not learned enough to conjure profound statements and send them into the world with the confidence that an audience will nod their head and say “wow!” Therefore, we have to rely on those who do this with ease. Jordan Peterson is one of those people in my opinion. His book, “12 rules for life” is a highly recommended read. One of those rules is tell the truth…or at least, don’t lie.
You may be surprised what happens if you start to put this into action. I must say that it has started to make some real changes in my life. You may feel your head and brain feel a little lighter knowing that you are not trudging around with little white lies (or huge whopping lies!). Another side effect is feeling more prepared to call out things that you think go against your moral compass. This nourishes your soul when it comes from the right place. And who doesn’t love a nourished soul!
Comprehension of the written word is an important part of what we do as voice actors. We learn to analyze scripts and find underlying meaning to bring out a better performance. This, in turn, leads us to understand any written text better, including Facebook posts and blogs. We then find ourselves discovering hidden motives, underlying resentment or egotistical maniac tendencies in those prose! And do you know what – who cares! There are far too many keyboard warriors out there who hide behind their computers and try to character assassinate people. Cancel culture is an abomination of the internet. If you don’t like somebody’s views - fine, I am OK with that. But trying to ridicule, or in some cases, destroy someone for having a different opinion? What is the motivation for that? Only you can truly answer that. If you sit down and meditate about that motivation, I hope you can be truthful with yourself and the answer that is revealed.
NOBODY is perfect. We are human. We make mistakes. Sometimes our intent is not what the other person thinks it is. Sometimes we are showing internal feelings that we may not know ourselves yet. And sometimes we are wrong when we analyze that script or Facebook post ourselves and come to the wrong conclusion of the real intent. You should embrace being wrong. It shows growth, humility, and the ability to learn.
So, if you see me being a little more vocal about what I believe is the truth – now you know why! If I offend anyone, I assure you that this is not my intent. I wake up everyday telling myself the mantra: “keep your moral standards high and always do the right thing”. So, I expect to be called out if I do something that you think is wrong. In fact, I welcome it – actually no, I expect it!