VP's BLOG: Through Your Own Looking Glass

BroadwayWorld.com is excited to introduce its newest blogger - VP Boyle! VP BOYLE is one of the most sought after Broadway audition and life coaches for professionals in New York City and works with actors at every level across the country to spread his irreverent approach to theatrical wellness. He wears many hats in the Broadway community (director, casting director, actor, writer, producer) and is most known in the theatrical casting world for creating The Musical Theatre Forum, a professional casting workshop with every major Broadway casting agency in NYC.

VP currently serves as the creator and Chair of the New York Film Academy's new cutting-edge Musical Theatre & Film Conservatory Program. The two-year program merges conservatory musical theatre training with Broadway professionals and an intensive acting on film curriculum that culminates with an original movie musical film project.

VP will be blogging weekly for BroadwayWorld.com...

Life is about filters. When Alice took her trippy, twisted adventures down the rabbit hole and through the looking glass, she always showed up as a curious observer of life. She chose to take on whatever came to her with a pretty heroic point of view when much of the information really didn't fall into anything that seemed logical. What's logical? Logical is a phony way to feel safe. To judge. To stagnate. Being uncomfortable is growth.

If you are not outside of your comfort zone in some area of your life, you are not growing. Period. Look at your life and make two lists:

1. MY COMFORT LIST
2. MY CHALLENGE LIST

Be sure to list everything from career to relationships to food to money to family to spirituality. Get as specific with the categories as possible such as "dating outside the business" or "the color green." Keep listing until you feel you can't list anything else on either list and then list some more. Come back to it at least every day for a week. Fixate on those lists throughout the week and add to them. When you finally feel complete, really look at your life adventure and put some thought time into the lists through your own looking glass. This is your adventure, after all. I guarantee that your comfort list holds many possibilities for growth if you shake it up and match the things on that list across to things on your challenge list. Draw lines from items on one list to items on the other and see what looks shows up as interesting. Try a bunch of different combinations to see how they shift possibilities. Really, really, really appreciate your challenge list. This is your looking glass for life. It's the juicy stuff that makes you uncomfortable and if you choose to live there daily, you will find the greatest personal growth.

And the greatest adventure for you to document in your memoir!