Taylor Sheridan's Lightbulb Moment (Tapping into your creative energy)
"I have never seen anyone bang their head against the wall for 20 years and then make it. I've seen it take eight years; I've seen it take ten. But I've never seen it take 20." - Taylor Sheridan
I think of all of us as vessels for energy. Like a bunch of light bulbs. For us to really shine, we need to be plugged into a source of energy.
If that sounds too ‘woo’ or abstract, take a look at writer, director, and producer Taylor Sheridan. At age 38, his life looked like an episode of ‘Follow your bliss gone wrong’.
The Texan had dropped out of college and moved to LA to become an actor but struggled to get roles. Sheridan was repeatedly broke. Sometimes he camped with friends on a nearby reservation. His big break — drum roll — was a minor role on the show Sons of Anarchy.
Then his son was born and Sheridan realized he wasn’t earning enough money to support his new family. When he asked for a raise, he was told to take a hike. “They were like, buddy, you're never going to be a star,” he recalled. “This is what you're worth.”
This is what you are worth. Ouch.
But in his heart, Sheridan agreed. He no longer believed in himself as an actor. After nearly two decades of struggle, he had hit a wall. “10th on the call sheet” was the best he would ever be.
And then the “Sheridan light bulb” gets screwed into a different socket. The left column is his life as an actor. The right one is a decade of Sheridan the writer, director, producer, and dad. What? Are we sure this is the same person?
“Most people overestimate what they can do in one year,” Bill Gates said, “and underestimate what they can do in ten years.” Point taken. But how, Bill? How? How do I wildly underestimate my next ten years and go full-on Taylor Sheridan?
Some energy you can buy off the shelf, like a battery. Make a new year’s resolution, set a big goal, hit the gym, crush a Celsius or drop some Adderall, put on your favorite music… You can fly for a while until you crash like a cannonball. On-off bursts of energy, of optimism and despair can feel like hell, like you’re stuck wandering in Dante’s infinite loops.
Sheridan gained and sustained tremendous momentum. Trung Phan pointed out the magic of massive commitments and tight deadlines. Sheridan created a structure that forced him to succeed at speed, like a pressure cooker. There’s some truth to that. Sheridan had to support his family. But it does not explain the outpouring of creative energy — which seemed to accelerate rather than burn out.
“True behavior change is identity change,” wrote James Clear. Sheridan didn’t change his identity as much as he re-discovered it, re-committed to it. He stopped pretending and took off his mask. Change rippled through his life like a tsunami from the core.
