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Welcome back to Working Over Time, the Advice Forward Robin to Working's Batman. I'm your host, Isaac Butler.

I guess that makes me Robin, just to say you're the host, June Thomas.

June, I would like to congratulate you on reaching an important milestone.

I am not talking about the work on your forthcoming book about lesbian life in the 20th century through the series of different spaces that were important to that life.

But rather, you have survived your first winter in Scotland. There's now daylight where you are, I imagine. How's life? What's it like?

You know, I think people mistake Scotland for Northern Minnesota. It's really quite mild here. It's lovely today. The weather is perfect for me.

It's about 60 degrees, or as we say here and in the rest of the world, about 16 degrees. It's not humid. In the winter, we had one or two days of a couple of millimeters of snow.

It's really temperate and nice like Seattle before climate change. I don't know what people think it's like, but yeah, now we got tons of light. I have to admit, it was a bit of a bummer in the winter when it got very dark very early, but I'm living the weather here.

So Isaac, this is not a show about the weather. It is a show where we give advice about the creative process. So what on earth are we going to talk about today?

You know, I'm glad you asked you because we got a delightful email from a relatively new listener named Brigitte, who is a writer in Montreal, and she writes,

My question is, as creative people, what importance do you grant the work on one self part? Unravel one's patterns regarding success, for example, using techniques to anchor the confidence, overcome your obstacles, etc.

Maybe this is a question that would be more of interest to June Thomas. Brigitte, thank you for bringing this up. I have a feeling she thinks it will be mostly of interest to you because you are our most outspoken advocate of targeted, planned, well-managed,

goal set, self-improvement. And it's one of the things I admire most about you.

Oh, I do enjoy a little bit of self-reflection, Isaac. I have to admit, I enjoy spending time with my notebook, figuring out processes,

divining intentions. I found it really useful to ask myself, is this really what you want to be doing? And then I try to be honest with myself when I answer that question.

I think we all have to figure out how to take care of ourselves, how to support our families, pay the bills, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to do those things in a way that offers at least a possibility of happiness and maximum fulfillment.

That for me is the main point and the benefit of self-improvement. I just want to do what I can to minimize misery. But what about you, Isaac? Is this a thing you care about at all?

Actually, I care about it a lot, June. And because I must bring everything back around to my book, The Method, How the 20th Century Learn to Act,

it's worth saying that in Russian, Stanislavsky's first book about acting, the title of it translates to, in actors work on oneself.

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