How To Sundance Wrong And Love It

Underneath all my confidence and ultra suaveness lies this little nagging voice that always worries: “You’re going to do it wrong!” If I’m already engaged in something it might say, “You’re doing it wrong,” and when I’m done, it will lovingly whisper, “Well that sucked.” In Landmark education we call that your act. This thing, made up when you were a child that you believe and runs you. To battle that, you can say, “Shut up”, “Thank you for sharing,” you can never try anything, or you can create some new belief.

In Peak Potentials (run by T. Harv Ecker, the Canadian Tony Robbins), they have two sayings about this. 1: Ready, Fire, Aim! Which means, don’t wait till it’s all perfect, just try and then fix your messes. Which leads to their second saying, “Correct and continue.”

All this coupled with a wonderful section of the book, The Artist’s Way, on not doing things perfectly, means two things: 1. I do a lot of self growth work and 2. I’d never do Sundance Film Festival, my dream, unless I just shot myself out of a canon and went this year. I mean, the stars did all align and the book Conversations With God says, when you’re ready, the signs will appear, so I looked: I had won some money in a Screenwriting Competition, my school had off and I reunited with a friend via Facebook who lived in Utah of all places, and after listening to my manager, and with a bit of prodding from friends, I decided, in January, to go to Sundance. I knew I should have planned well in advance and that “act”, voices and Ben and Jerry’s in my stomach were all screaming, but by gum, I was going to take it all on and do Sundance wrong, but finally do it- this year.

How to do it wrong? Start planning in January to go Monday, January 25- Friday, January 29th. How to do it even wronger? More wrong? Wrongially? (Ack, I’m using wrong-ish grammar!) First, I realize it follows another self growth course in San Francisco (Power And Contribution) and so I fly back home Sunday night and then fly out to Sundance Monday, rather than flying from San Francisco right out to Sundance. Second, I book the flight from Monday – Saturday, then realize I have an all day class on Saturday so spend $100 more to change your flight. Which is what I did. (Life lessons can be expensive, folks.) After that, things were easy. The semi-grownup in me booked a rental car and airport parking. And had to change them a few times. And then when my friend in Utah said she’d lost her job and could drive me around, cancel the car reservation. (So with the $100 flight change fee, I was up $160! Yay!)

Third, I online to get tickets and I realize that you’re supposed to buy a package a million years before. And then, don’t even buy tickets till Monday night, online, and realize most things are sold out, but you can get tickets to things for Wednesday- Friday because apparently no one but me stays till then. They all went the first weekend when you’re supposed to go. That’s when parties are and the celebrities are here. But my friends and I do find tickets to movies and then the computer freezes and we lost them but then we get them again and I’m happy.

Monday has come and gone, and I just picked out tickets. Tuesday, we’re trying to get my friend a job (and I think we did!!! ☺) and we have a late start. Then it’s off to Park City. And I have to say, from here on in, I have a ball. Actually, I’ve had a ball the whole time. As I was doing it wrong! And As I had the time of my life, I also learned what to do for next year. Correct and continue! My friend (an amazing sport) and I exchanged an 8:30 am movie ticket because that was ridiculous, will see our 5th movie today, we’ve gone to a party, seen a friend of mine, talked to everyone and we saw how incredibly beautiful Utah is in the winter! I woke up every morning to see dogs in the backyard playing in snow. Snow! (I’m living in LA). The trees are beautiful, the little houses are great, I learned how hard it is to buy wine for a party in a Mormon state, and I’m not kidding- I think we got my friend the job she really wants. Not to mention she was a cop and criminal investigator so she helped me with my Mentalist script. I leave today and I had a blast!

So today’s lesson, kiddies, is the following: Do your dreams. I’ve wanted to go to Sundance for 10 years and always had “reasons.” But by being “Unreasonable” I threw myself here, completely “did it wrong,” had a great time, am very proud of myself and now I know other ways to plan for this, if I choose. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. And you can do all of this while helping end unemployment by getting your friend a job!