Process Not Performance: Expand Time

December 2025

I hope you have had a wonderful Christmas and are able to celebrate the new year tonight.

2026 will hopefully bring a return to a busy industry filled with acting opportunities. Of course, we will be here to help you achieve your acting goals and develop your craft.

Workshop Updates

Manchester

January 10th/11th 2026 with Juliet Charlesworth and George is sold out.

Join the Waiting List

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7th/8th February will be a weekend acting intensive with George and me (Majid). One studio only. Let us know if you would like a place (pay later via an invoice - regulars only) or book now.

Book Manchester February Workshop

London

We have 4 spaces left for 17th/18th January with myself, George and Sheraz Ahmed CDG. We will be working from an original screenplay currently in development and you will submit a self-tape to Sheraz for feedback.

Book London January Workshop

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21st/22nd February will be back to one studio with myself and George for a weekend acting intensive. Official invites will be sent next week but booking is available. Reserve your spot and pay later (regulars only) or book now using the link below.

Book London February Workshop

My Ideas

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My most important lesson of 2025: expand time with novelty and intensity. As we get older, it is common to think and hear the phrase ‘where has the time gone?!’. This is because once our brains get used to something they don’t bother to store it in our memory bank. Thus, those weeks in a regular routine where nothing out of the ordinary happens seem to fly by. Then you go on holiday to a new country for 2 weeks and by the end of it, it feels as if you have been there forever. That is because your brain is much more alert to new surroundings and experiences. You become more present. The more present you are, the more time expands. In 2026 I will be seeking out as many new experiences as possible and switching up my routine to hopefully ‘slow time down’.

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I completed the Modern Wisdom Annual Review (link below). The main theme I noticed from my answers is that I’m not chasing highs anymore, I am chasing stability. I repeatedly return to wanting calm, peace, steady energy, consistency, emotional regulation and sustainable health. I want to optimise how life feels day to day, not how it looks from the outside. I want to become a model of calm masculinity.

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If you do 4 hours of deep work (uninterrupted, focused work on a big task) per day, you are in the top 1% of people in the world.

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Choose your acting goals for 2026 based on what you can control. ‘I want to play the lead at the National Theatre’ is not something you can achieve without outside influence. Break it down into concrete tasks:

‘I will subscribe to the NT mailing list and keep up-to-date with what is on.’

‘I will speak to my agent about wanting to work there.’

‘I will email the casting department whenever there is a part I am right for.’

‘I will read plays that have been on there and rehearse scenes.’

‘I will attend workshops with NT creatives.’

‘I will continue to develop my craft with regular practice and classes.’

Insights

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The Modern Wisdom Annual Review Template helps you deconstruct 2025’s lessons and sets your goals for 2026. I love it. Here is the link: 2025 Annual Review

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Yiyun Li on writing:

“Writing is hard, but living is harder. Writing is optional. Living, too, is optional, though its demands make writing seem idyllic.”

- from the book Things in Nature Merely Grow

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David Park on living with fear:

“Living with fear is the worst way to live and that it darkens even the bright things you try to do and that it’s incessant, gnawing away at the very things you need to exist.”

- from the book Travelling in a Strange Land

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Shane Parrish on perspectives:

“If we truly want to understand the results of our actions, we must be open to other perspectives. Allowing for other perspectives is also key to having productive relationships with others.”