Your Best Work Is Still Ahead Of You

Random thoughts from a bleary brain

Hello friends,

What is the thing that drives someone to find and executive interesting, fulfilling work when they don’t need to turn up for a 9 -5 job anymore and how do they find motivation to ‘get off the couch’ in order to do that?

Your Best Work Is Still Ahead Of You

I saw this headline a few weeks ago.

Then last week I listened to a podcast and I heard these words:

I'm always fighting against a voice in my head that's saying, “Shut up. No one cares what you think about anything.” And the very act of getting on stage and talking and telling stories and trying to be funny is a weird act of approving of myself. - Judd Apatow - from Kelly Corrigan Wonders podcast

An act of approving of myself.

I spend too much time searching for the meaning behind stories and deep questions. But this is where I feel most alive. Last night I finished the first season of my new show Difficult Conversations with Jane Hutcheon a hybrid theatre/talk/podcast which is a infant starting out in life. That will continuing but in the meantime I’m moving right on with a family history project in collaboration with

Projectkin Community Forum

I did not feel like reaching out this morning [tired, tired, tired. Yawn]. but I love a self-imposed newsletter deadline and I don’t like to disappoint. So if you are ever unsure about WHETHER or not should do something, I hope my two quotable phrases give you something to ponder.

Meantime, here’s an image from Wednesday’s show at the Seymour Centre in Sydney with Debra Keenahan, Jeremiah Edagbami and Benjamin Law. Thanks also to Tim Dean who appeared on Thursday.

I do love takeaways and what I took away from these shows was that people DO want to engage in difficult conversations. We were deluged with quite amazing questions, far too many to fit in the show. Now I’m wondering what to do with all those amazing questions. They are calling to be answered! A friend who was in the audience said during the interval she heard people having deep conversations about some of the issues raised in the show, which included polarisation, arguments, listening, hate speech, and handling conversations over technology.

A small portion of the hand-written questions from Wednesday night

My deep gratitude (yes! go try a Gratitude Squat) to all who came to our two shows, and to our supporters, Seymour Centre team, University of Sydney, the lovely Stage Door staff, Jonathan Hindmarsh for fabulous set design, Christine Dunstan Productions and Red Line Productions.

And now, I’m heading back to bed, before my Pilates class, of course.