Push yourself but don't punish yourself

As most of you will know, I'm never far from a sporting analogy and the Words of Wisdom this week are one of my sayings about running: Push yourself but don't punish yourself. This comes from the principles of athletics training. If you put your body under stress, by repeatedly asking it to run further or faster than it's comfortably capable of, then your body will gradually adapt to cope with that stress and your performance will improve. To make this work you have to push (stress) yourself but if you punish (overstress) yourself you will likely get injured or at least have an unpleasant enough experience to put you off the spert for good.

Athletics is a measurable, physically demanding activity, but the same principles apply to acting, whcih is an immeasurable art or craft. To get better at it you have to practice and train yourself continually and persistently; if you don't your skills will go backwards. You have to set yourself tasks you find difficult; that's the only way you can improve. But at the same time you mustn't be overly self critical. Encourage yourself and congratulate yourself when something goes well. Otherwise you're teaching yourself that your art is painful and difficult, which it shouldn't be.

Push yourself but don't punish yourself.