The Tools of the Inner Game of Acting – Self Awareness

In any field of skill acquisition, winning the Inner Game is the key to maximum performance. A recent blog (found here) introduced the Inner Game, discussing the three basic elements necessary to mastering this aspect of performance psychology.

These are WILL, AWARENESS and SELF TRUST. Mastering all three should be the aim of a performer in any field but the most difficult of these to manage is AWARENESS – more specifically non-judgmental self-awareness.

This means that as performers, we should develop the skill of listening to what we are doing in any given moment (performance, rehearsal or otherwise). With true awareness, we are able to evaluate and assess what we have done with kindness and decide what went wrong and how to improve next time instead of the harsh and often brutal self-assessment we give ourselves for no real reason.

The world of acting is so submerged in different styles of teaching and techniques that the actor often finds themselves lost in what is right and what is wrong. But more importantly, these teachings only focus on the outward skills an actor might need and neglect the inner game that is happening inside, neglecting the battle the actor finds themselves in – when their mind turns on them, saying they have failed, or that they are worthless, or that maybe acting isn’t for them.

The skill of non-judgemental self-awareness is so vital to the actor that without it, there is no hope to fulfil the potential they have. Audition after audition and role after role, they will criticise themselves with no real base point of reference. That is, they are certain they have made terrible mistakes when in truth, they don’t really know how to judge whether they really were mistakes in the first place.

With proper coaching and a commitment to challenging long held personal beliefs about our own level of skill, any performer can develop the ability of SELF-AWARENESS. With time, the voice inside us that is so convinced we have done everything wrong will quieten and in its place will be a professional who can perform to maximum efficiency and afterwards, perform a self evaluation that is free of negative self-talk and harsh criticism.