Examine Your “Rushes”
“Your life is like a book.
The title page is your name, the preface your introduction to the world. The
pages are a daily record of your efforts, trials, pleasures, discouragements,
and achievements. Day by day your thoughts and acts are being inscribed in your
book of life. Hour by hour, the record is being made that must stand for all
time. Once the word ‘fini’ must be written, let it then be said of your book
that it is a record of noble purpose, generous service, and work well-done.”
Grenville Kleiser, author of Training for Power and
Leadership
Lights, camera, action! Welcome to your own private
Hollywood: You are making, right now, day by day, the movie of your life.
At some time in the future you will reach that great cinema
in the sky. You will take a seat in that heavenly auditorium and watch the
movie of your life as you lived it––playing out on the big screen to end all
big screens. How will you feel about that movie as it unspools? Every night as
I go to sleep, I find myself wondering, how will “The Life and Times of Danny
Cox” look when it is played back? Will I be proud of that movie? Will I know in
my heart that the central character pursued the right goals, for the right
reasons? Or will I wonder why on earth that man on the screen made the choices
he did? Will I find myself yearning for the chance to make another film––the
film I should have made? What can I do now, today, to make sure that that movie
is the best I can possibly make it?
Yesterday’s film is “in the can.” The choices we make day by
day, the goals we set for ourselves, the way we act toward achieving those
goals––those are the only factors that will affect the film that still remains
to be shot.
So, how can we improve that film? One-way is to use the technique
used by the Hollywood moguls to insure film quality; Look at the daily rushes.
What are daily rushes? They’re a moviemaker’s short-term
answers to big questions: “Am I getting to where I thought I was getting? And
if I’m not, where the heck am I getting
to, and how do I get back?”
When Steven Spielberg sets out to make an exotic new
adventure film, he doesn’t travel around the world, shoot every scene in his
script, and then sit down and review all
the footage from beginning to end. That’s a risky way to make a movie!
Spielberg might just get to the end of the process and realize that the mood in
scene 43A didn’t quite match up with the mood scene in scene 43B––and then ask
himself why he didn’t notice that while he was still in Sumatra with the cast
and crew.
Waiting until the last minute to review one’s shooting is a
dangerous proposition. Instead, a good director takes a look, each day, at the
rushes, the early film clips that reflect the work that was just completed. By
reviewing the first prints of that day’s clips, Spielberg (and every other
director worthy of the name) can evaluate each of the individual shots that
will eventually turn into a movie––the movie that the director set out to make.
It’s close to impossible to put together a good movie if you
don’t look at your rushes until the end of the production process. I believe
the same principle applies to the movie of your life. And who wants to run the
risk of sabotaging that release?
Rushes give filmmakers the chance to review each day’s work.
For a director, looking at the rushes means sitting in a dark screening room
and looking out for what worked and what didn’t. As he watches the images go
by, the director asks questions. How should a scene be edited? What needs to be
improved? How does what’s up on the screen affect the next day’s work?
In the same way, a barrier-breaker learns to ask questions about
the “shooting schedule” of the day just past. Every day, at some point we need
to ask ourselves, “What just happened? What brought me closer to my goal? What
moved me further away from my goal? What worked? How can I get what worked to
happen again and happen on a regular basis if I need it to?"
It’s just as important to ask, “What didn’t work so well?
What would I edit out if I had the chance? What needs to be done all over
again? What do I need to do to keep a ‘bad scene’ from happening again?”
Even more important is to ask, “What was the big lesson life
had planned for me today?” Once you figure that one out, you can ask yourself, “How
well did I learn that lesson, and what can I do to put it to work the next time
I face a similar situation?”
Asking questions like that, once a day, is part of reviewing
the day’s “rushes”––the actual events and decisions you made over the course of
24 hours. That’s the way to be sure the film of your life is shaping up, as it
should. Watching your own daily rushes is the same as monitoring the progress
you’ve made toward the important goals you’ve identified. Again, taking baby steps is fine, as
long as you go somewhere you intend to go!
Immediate Action: At the end of the day today,
ask yourself, “Did I move upward, toward positive role models and energizing
goals, or did I move down, toward negative influences?” Be ruthlessly honest
with yourself, and write down the answers you come up with on a sheet of paper.
Find out whether there was net “gain” or a net “loss” in movement toward your
constructive goal, and then ask yourself how you can maximize gains and
minimize loses tomorrow.
Point to Ponder Before You
Go On: Examining your
rushes is not an exercise in negative thinking it’s a way of fine-tuning your
daily goals, and thus making progress toward your major goals. If this opportunity
for self-evaluation becomes an opportunity for self-flagellation, you’re in
trouble! Goals always look forward; discouragement always looks backward.
