By Anthony Meindl | Posted May 20, 2014, 3 p.m.

Construct: an idea containing various conceptual elements; typically one not based on empirical evidence.

We have so many constructs built around life: what success looks like, what love and happiness look like, how shot business works, etc. But what if we realized that those very constructs can also be part of the paradigm (and prison) that keeps us from actually enjoyingand livingthe lives we have now?

I guess its human nature. From an early age were painted pictures and spoon-fed images of what our future is supposed to look like. Once we get there everything weve been taught when were kids will be fulfilled, and well live happily ever after.

But what if those constructs are illusions? At one level, they can be positive because they keep us on target for creating goals and having a vision and pursuing our dreams.

But at another level, they can have a negative effect because they make us denigrate what we currently have in favor of some future thing. They make us compare and despair, and live our lives constantly chasing the construct rather than celebrating what is in our lives now. This can show up in life in the form of complaining, feeling depressed and hopeless and self-critical, to becoming cynical and jaded, and eventually just giving up.

Constructs can lull us into this anesthetized state of taking things for granted, so we end up ignoring what we do have in favor of constantly focusing on what we dont.

Life, however, can equalize those constructs. Battling a serious illness will do that, getting older, watching a parent decline, losing someone, witnessing tragedy. These life events generally shake us awake into living and fully celebrating our lives right now rather than waiting for some idealized future.

But why must it take these kinds of events to wake us up?

The art of acting is a great teacher of life, as it reminds us that in order to fully embrace each moment as it happens, we have to first be there to receive it. It works exactly like the mechanics of life itselfour constantly being distracted by the ideas of a moment or how to say a line or what we think a character looks like or how we want a scene to goputs us in our head trying to fulfill constructs that are never as good (or real) as the real thing. The work is to get out of our heads and live the moment.

Read the rest here:
Why Actors Need to Break Free from Social Constructs