I remember going to a little acting summer camp when I was about 13 years old. One of the techniques taught in class for the actor was to clear the deck before a performance. What that essentially meant was that before the show or scene we had to mentally empty our mind and thoughts from our real world situation and place us in the world of our character. Clearing the deck was essential to our job because it helped clear the distractions that could kill the performance on stage.

When I was a senior in high school I played the role of Albert Peterson in Bye Bye Birdie, and did I have a great time. One Saturday matinee I injured my foot and I don't know how I made it through the play but I did. For the performance that night, I had no idea what I was going to do, so I ended up using a cane and making my character appear like he too needed a cane. I did every scene with a cane and even improvised a new dance with the cane so that the integrity of the character and story would not be altered.

Even with an injury I had to clear the deck. The injury was now a part of the character and a part of the journey because it wasn't going to go away. Sometimes adversity can be so big that we can't get rid of it right away, but we need to adapt and maybe even us it to our advantage.

In life how much more important is it for us to make that big deal, or get that new job, or just achieve our dreams. Distractions can be the difference between a dream job and a failed career. It's important to dream big, but more important if we can't get there because negative influence are in our lives, then we have some deck clearing to do! Big time!

How do some of you out there deal with distractions and clearing your deck?