Paula Rejon Alcalde

Intro to Acting - THAR 120

Professor McKenna Kerrigan
Personal Reflection on Resistance:

While reading the chapter of Resistance in Anne Bogart’s A Director Prepares, I have gotten

emotional, experienced tears of joy and felt goosebumps several times after identifying myself and reasoning

with the writer’s experiences and ideas. Hence, I decided that those quotes that arose deep feelings within

myself in addition to making me feel emotional and understood while reading the piece of art that this

chapter is, are the ones I will analyze throughout this paper.

“But in the moments of discord and discomfort, in the instant that we feel challenged by the

circumstances, our natural inclination is to stop. Don’t stop.”

In this chapter, the author explains how she considers distractions, laziness and lack of patience the

three biggest challenges. To these, I would add fear of failure, which I consider to be another paramount

resistance that most people experience in their endeavours and that tends to paralyze most of us. As this

quote states, once we feel challenged or scared, there is a natural tendency for us to stop pursuing a goal we

had in mind - I believe in order to protect ourselves from potential failure.

I have felt paralyzed by fear in many occasions, and I am aware that it is the biggest resistance of all

for myself, especially when it comes to my modeling / acting career, and being concerned about criticism

from my agents or different people. As an example, I have been very close to quitting my modeling career

that I started at the age of 14 several times because of fear of not being able to achieve and maintain specific

body measurements required by the industry, or because of the fear of potentially not achieving the success I

wanted and being perceived as a failure by myself and others.

The moment of clarity came to me when I realized that with anything you try, there is almost always

risk of failure, but when you don’t even try, then failure is for granted. I realized I could not let fear win this

internal battle against myself or I would regret that decision for the rest of my life. Hence, I have become a

strong believer that when you are able to accept and overcome that fear of failure, you believe in yourself

 and jump in even if it feels scary, then you are able to accomplish anything you desire; which leads me to the

second quote I selected:

“Power is the elimination of obstacles. Power is speed. We all want to experience the charge of

power that happens as all obstacles fly away, when words or actions pour out of us faster than we can

think. The paradox is that we have to earn that speed and power and flow by embracing the obstacles until

they evaporate”

I fully agree with this quote, and I am a strong believer that when we embrace, accept and utilize

resistances to our advantage, they automatically disappear, since they are no longer challenges, but our

surrounding circumstances, which are perfect in essence. I believe these resistances exist for a higher

purpose in order for us to deliver results above our own expectations and become an even better version of

ourselves through taking actions and learning skills that we otherwise would not have experienced, even if

we hardly ever recognize this when we first encounter challenges.

Following up from my previous example, I am now grateful that I had a tough time maintaining

modeling body measurements, since that situation pushed me to experiment and develop long-term healthy

eating, movement and self-care habits that I enjoy and embrace as part of my lifestyle and that I am sure will

keep me in good health for many years. Every challenge I have faced not only in my career but also in my

life has made me struggle in the beginning, but has pushed me to find the tools and make positive

adjustments in my journey, which I am now extremely grateful for with the benefit of hindsight. Wanting

certain things and encountering resistances to them has encouraged me to read, learn, explore and discover

incredible tools while working on myself on a physical, mental and spiritual level to the point where I have

developed an entire routine and lifestyle that makes me feel happier and more fulfilled every single day

while continuing to learn about myself and others.

I am a strong believer that everything happens for a reason and that difficulties and darkness we

encounter throughout our lives are there strategically to help our learning process, make us evolve and

become a better person overall. Although it always takes courage and introspection to see this and experience

a mindset shift from complaining about the resistances encountered to embracing them, understanding them,

and utilizing them. Hence, I agree with this quote and believe that true power lies in having the tools to

 change your mindset to a positive one regardless of the circumstances around you. This is what differentiates

certain people from others.

“Do not assume you have to have some prescribed conditions to do your best work. Do not wait.

Do not wait for enough time or money to accomplish what you think you have in mind. Work with what

you have right now. […] What you do now, what you make of your present circumstances will determine

the quality and scope of your future endeavors.”

I could not agree more with this quote, and its essence reminds me of one of my favorite books:

“Good luck: Creating the Conditions for Success in Life and Business” by Alex Rovira where the author

explains how you can achieve success in your tasks no matter where you are as long as you have the right

approach and determination to put in the work and get things started.

Yet I sometimes find it extremely hard to behave following this pattern of conduct, and find myself

waiting around for better or more appropriate times and circumstances to come in order to get things started

(maybe also paralyzed by fear as I explained earlier) especially when it comes to my “bigger” goals or

aspirations.

Right now the main challenge I am experiencing in my modeling / acting career are visa constraints,

since I am an international student living in the US and my student visa does not allow me to work alongside

my studies. This situation is very different to the one I have experienced in the past few years while living in

Europe, as I have always been working in modeling jobs, TV commercials or productions while studying,

which not only has helped me progress in my career but also made me feel very fulfilled doing what I love.

Hence, one goal I have set for myself and want to keep pursuing is following this pattern of thought

and making the most out of this time period regardless of this external resistance, while pushing myself to

look for ways to keep working on myself and progressing in my career and life.

I would like to finish this paper with what probably is my favorite quote from the entire chapter:

“Utopia is now” which reminded me that everything is perfect as it is now, everything that exists and occurs

does so for a reason, and that the present moment is the perfect moment - it is a gift.