Where in the world am I today?: Guangzhou, China
Back in February I posted on how email can turn into a huge time suck. Last week I posted about the Underground Circus and their 10 meter tall marionette. So how do these two things relate to the heading ‘Practice and Training?’ Let me elaborate…
I’m enormously impressed with Peter and Ninon’s (Founders of the Underground Circus) focus and discipline when it comes to committing time just about every day to training and improving their skills and craft. They’ve got a well established training space and their daily routine includes time spent at the gym either working on a specific routine or general strength training, or both.
When I’m at home I find that the huge time suck of email is enough distraction along with the wonderful attractions/distractions of being a father/husband that I haven’t established a practice/training routine when I’m at home that keeps pushing me forward with my skills.
When I leave home to perform I often find that I can make time in my daily routine to include some sort of training or practice. This seems particularly easy when I’m working on ships. The shot above shows me working on a five-ball bounce juggling pattern aboard the Star Princess last June. Ships are also great because they always have a reasonably well equipped gym where I can keep my body moving and exercising.
I was out walking around here in Guangzhou one morning earlier this week and was impressed to see so many people out in public spaces engaged in some sort of exercise. Everything from slow moving Tai Chi to badminton to a cool looking version of hacky-sack to what looked like some sort of ball room dancing. People’s daily routine included time spent engaged in physical activity which was awesome.
I guess the challenge for me is going to be to figure out how to incorporate some training/practice time into my daily routine when I’m at home and stick to it. In my fantasy world I envision building a workshop/studio space in a barn in my back yard and going to the space daily even if it was just something like daily from 9:30 – 11:30 for a couple of hours to work on my skills, write comedy, develop new routines, jam out new ideas and spend time everyday on my career that has nothing to do with my computer and especially that dreaded time-suck – email! It would likely be easier to find a space I could do that in that wasn’t a barn in my back yard, but I do like the idea of the barn. Hmmmm… Barn… A guy’s gotta have dreams right? Right!
