Bhutan, a tiny relatively poor country tucked between China and India in the Himalayas, knows something bigger and richer countries don’t: that fiscal health is only a small part of what makes a country great. The leaders of Bhutan have the wisdom to know that the happiness of each and every citizen, their education, physical and mental health, relationship to the environment, spiritual development, etc., is what makes a country truly successful.
Bhutan measures the overall well-being of its citizens using an index called Gross National Happiness. The index contains nine steps and has over 30 sub-steps that help to identify and promote the behaviors and conditions that ensure that each person has the causes and conditions for a well-rounded, full, and happy life.
I think is a very healthy and even necessary way for artists to look at their lives as well. Because happiness will sometimes be the only gauge of your success—money and security often not being the primary rewards of the artistic life—it would seem to be a good idea to have a way to check in to see if you are truly happy living the life of the artist.
In that spirit, I thought it would be fun to apply three of the principles that form the basis of Bhutan’s Gross National Happiness index to the life of the artist.
Living standard. This can be interpreted in a number of different ways. Applied to a country such as Bhutan, it means the house you live in, access to clean water, septic systems, roads, etc. Applied to the actor, it means the standards by which you live your life.
What are the standards that you hold yourself up to? What is your work ethic? Is the standard just as high for the work you do to develop yourself as an artist as it is to market yourself? Do your life and work represent the highest standard of artistic excellence and beauty? Can you say every day that you have done at least one thing to move you closer to being a life-changing actor—an important artist?
And what is your standard of care for yourself? Do you care well for your body, mind, and soul? Do treat yourself with kindness and humor? Do you know when to lean on yourself and when to back off? Do you spend more time accepting all of who you are than you do trying to change what you think other people won’t like?
To be completely available for your art and your life—nothing hidden or defended—is the highest standard of living and the highest vibration of happiness that an artist can aspire to.
Generosity/service. Acting is an art form, a business, some would say a trade. All true. I would add that it’s also a service. Your job is to give away your talent, to serve the needs of an audience that wants to be entertained and surprised. (By the way, if you think that doesn’t apply to auditioning, think again!)
Most actors I have spoken with say that they got into acting to connect to people and share their gifts. But it’s easy to get off track and become overly absorbed in all of the day-to-day business tasks that go a long with being an actor. So, it becomes very important for the actor to check in and make sure that they remember why they wanted to do this in the first place. When you get out of your own self centeredness you realize how narrow you can become if you’re not careful.
Generosity opens you up—expands your heart and strengthens you. When you give something away, you’re acknowledging that you live in abundance and have more than enough. You’re not losing anything but rather regaining the joy and expansiveness of the truly happy artist.
My working actors know that acting at its finest is not about what they are feeling, but about how thy can make others feel and that they are always at their best, happiest, and most effective when they are about something bigger than themselves.
Growth/sustainability. For a country to have a healthy future, growth has to take place at a rate that can be sustained. It’s no different for you as an artist. I have known so many actors over the years who have periods of intense dedication and growth, followed by periods of complete distraction or burn out. Their growth was too fast and too forced to be sustained.
All of life, and all of life in art is process. That’s it. Dedication to a process offers growth that is gradual and sustainable. If you say that you are in this career for the long haul than you will need to be constantly aware of what you need. You’ll need to be able to see when it’s time to grow and how and when it’s time to stay still and breath, letting the growth you’ve already experienced settle into your body and soul.
We live in a culture of the quick fix. But great art rarely happens quickly; it comes from a long process of awareness and hard work.
I have taught many actors over the years whose main concerns in preparing for an auditions is “finding the right answers quickly” No. Those actors don’t or aren’t willing to go deeply enough to do job-getting work. Often, they’ll just go for a few flashy, unconnected choices that are mostly done for some surface effect. Because the choices aren’t honestly theirs, they are unsustainable in the room. Working actors have a process that allows them to explore how each decision resonates in their mind, heart, and body before moving on to the next, and are able to sustain the power of those decisions and connect them out to the people who need to feel that power in order to hire them.
In your artistic life and in your actual work, grow only at the pace and in the ways that you can sustain. Feeding yourself a steady diet of what helps you grow and maintain your artistic happiness will help you have a career that lasts a lifetime.
Happiness isn’t your birthright, nor is it something you deserve. Happiness, like anything else, is work—it has to be earned. It occurs when a person creates the causes and conditions for its appearance and its growth. Having a way to check in with yourself to make sure you’re watering the seeds of happiness in your life and art, your own personal Gross Artistic Happiness index say, can help you stay on track and ensure a career that is focused, forward moving, rewarding, and joyful.
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