Acting is everywhere. It weaves itself through our lives. I define acting as the conscious creation of an imaginary world, and the living within it. If you think about it, the world we live in as individuals is the world that we have imagined. Perhaps this creation is not always the fruit of careful deliberation—it is not consciously created, and the resulting distress is the very flame that ignites conflict. Sometimes we construct problems in our lives out of sheer boredom, or as an effect of the addictions we use to abate that. An actor who is self-cognizant can become aware of the impact of his or her actions and beliefs and tailor them for the creation of a joyous life for himself.
Remember, you are always playing a character, even if you claim that you are just “being yourself.” All the principles of acting are applicable to any individual, as a person. Whenever you are consciously creating your world and living through your Imagination, you are acting.
I am a musician, as well as an actor. In a conversation I had, in which I was trying to chauvinistically declare that music is the highest of the Arts, I did get to a rub. The fact is, no matter what we do in our lives as people, the most insignificant of our movements is still undeniably an expression of character. Acting is unescapable; it is inevitable. For the painter paints, the musician plays, the sculptor sculpts; yet, at the top of it all, they each are their own character, and their Art is an extension of that.
Above all, it is crucial for every human being to understand that character and personality are completely adjustable. We have control over the way we sit and stand, the way we breathe, the way we use our eyes, our face, our hands. We are given a language at birth, yet we determine our usage of that, or of any other of the multitudinous languages which exist on planet earth. We are infinitely changeable. The actor must know this deeply in order to set aside his own affects, and to relish existing as another human being.
It is important to conceive of acting as the strongest modality for personal growth and progress. You design your identity. Each and every one of us must get to the point where we wittingly draw the features of our personage. You will sort and shift through those qualities transferred to you by family and society, so that you may invent yourself as a piece of Art the way you, and only you, see it.