If you want to take control of your life, land your dream job, finally start that new business, if you want to create a new story, you have to rewrite your script. Hey, it's Luca and welcome to The Luca Savazzi Podcast. Now, I remember the first time I decided I was going to be an actor. I must not have been paying attention. I was probably doodling or drawing because the moment the teacher announced that we were going on a school field trip, I was like, "Wait, what?" And I didn't realize that that field trip was going to change my life forever. Now, a few hours later, the bus pulled over at this beautiful old building in Amsterdam. And over the main entrance, there were these big red letters that spelled out the crackling. And at that point, I only knew the crackling to be this delicious traditional Dutch cookie, which of course I loved. And so me and all my friends, we were all super excited to go in, see all the cookies we could see, and hopefully eat them all. So, we go inside expecting the smell of butter, sugar, freshly baked cookies, and instead I smell this nostalgic blend of aged velvet, musty wood, and lingering stage smoke. Now, today I would call it a unique cocktail that hints of decades of history, dust, and dramatic magic. But back then, I just called it disappointment. Turns out the name of the building was a reference to a bridge nearby called the Cookie Bridge. So again, yay. No, the bridge probably got its name because of, let's say, some cookie related affairs nearby. And so I'll leave it just to that. But anyway, back to the theater. I didn't know anything about theaters or acting as a profession. And that day, I got to see my first theater play. And honestly, I had no idea what the play was about, but I do remember being completely immersed in the storm. And it was over before I knew it. After the applause, the teacher stepped on stage and said, "You know, I hope you enjoyed the play and now it's your turn." And this couldn't sound better in my ears. She also said there was going to be an audience coming in and we were going to perform for that audience. And again, I was like, what? We get to do what they just did? I was so excited. So they divided us up in small groups and we started coming up with these little stories and rehearsing scenes together. And the entire time I could only think about how cool this was. And then the moment I finally got to step on stage, I could hear the crackling wood underneath my feet, the silence in the room, the warm spotlight hitting my face, and the fun of just playing and being in a story and making that story come alive. I remember that was the moment that I fell in love with acting. At the age of six, I decided I was going to become an actor. Even though I love acting, the acting industry is not easy. It takes a lot of auditions. And to be honest, most of the auditions don't work out. And most of the times it has nothing to do with you unless you really screw up. But you get rejected so many times that it can become unbearable. Getting a role depends on a lot of external factors. That's why mindset matters a lot. You need beliefs that sustain you long enough to just keep showing up. And life works kind of the same way because the thoughts, the beliefs that we repeat eventually start becoming those scripts that we live by. And most of those scripts, you know, were not chosen consciously. They were inherited. We they got passed down. And so we grow up. We absorb things constantly. We hear how people talk about money, relationships, success, failure, safety, confidence. And what we keep hearing, we start believing. And it does not necessarily have to be the truth. But the things that we learn and we repeat in ourselves, they start becoming part of us. If we grew up in an environment where money had to be earned by working hard and working overtime, then there's a good chance that growing up we start believing that, you know, we need to save as much as we can or we have to not spend it. And the same is if we learn that we have to hide because of fear of rejection. Then growing up we become people pleasers or we start distrusting other people and we start having difficulties in building relationships and friends. So these are all beliefs that start with a thought and these thoughts drive our behavior. Now our brain is not wired for novelty and risk. It is wired for survival. Which means that it will always default to what we know because familiarity is predictable. Certainty is safe. Even if familiarity makes you feel miserable. Think about that for a second. Now, your brain would often rather keep you in a predictable, unhappy situation than move you forward in an uncertain, meaningful one. Because uncertainty feels dangerous to the brain. And this is why so many people stay stuck. Not because they're incapable, but because change feels risky. Starting a new business, ending a relationship, changing careers, speaking up for yourself, moving somewhere new, or finally choosing yourself. And it all requires stepping outside of the known script. And of course, our brain will immediately go like, uh-uh, danger, bad idea. Let's stay where it's safe and that's normal. But the beautiful thing is that our brains are also adaptable. Now, let me explain this through uh something that happened right in front of our new apartment. Like we moved to a new apartment here in Amsterdam and it was a construction site. Like there were constructions everywhere until finally they also started adding some green. And so they started building this cute little wheel park right in front of our building. And for a few weeks there was no one allowed on the soil because the grass needed some time to grow properly. And eventually it did. And so they opened the park and people started sitting here, sitting there, relaxing, picnicking, playing football, just enjoying the space. And everything looked perfect. A few weeks later, they opened this supermarket on the other side of the park. And at that point, there weren't really proper sidewalks yet. So, people started walking across the park to get to the supermarket. And at first, nothing happened. But after a few days, you could see this trail starting to form. The grass would slowly disappear because people kept walking over the exact same route every single day. And eventually there was a full dirt path cutting straight through the park. Now weeks after that, we finally got sidewalks around the park and so people started using those instead of just crossing the park directly. And slowly your grass started growing back until eventually it looked like there was never a bath to begin with in the first place. And that's exactly how our thoughts work. Our thoughts that we repeat become these pathways. And the more we think about our thoughts, the more we establish these pathways. So thoughts like I'm not good enough. I always fail. I'm awkward. I'm bad with money. I'm old. I'm behind. I'm not that kind of person. But new pathways can be created. And as you keep thinking about them, the old one will weaken and eventually the new one will become stronger. Your thoughts influence behavior and behavior influences actions. Actions are what drive results. And there's another interesting thing about the brain. It filters reality based on what you focus on. Just look around in your room or maybe you're sitting in a car, you're somewhere at the office, just have a look around. If I would ask you to tell me what you see, you wouldn't know where to start. Or you would just start listing all the things you see. Now, let me ask you something else. Do you see anything that has the color pink? And as you keep looking, your brain is now specifically looking for something pink. And maybe you're not seeing anything pink right now, but I challenge you to keep looking and then drop in the comments what you've seen because I'm almost sure you're going to find something that is pink. And this is the important thing because your beliefs work kind of the same way. If you believe that you are confident and successful, your brain will orient itself towards opportunities, behavior, environments, actions that are all connected to that identity. You will start behaving in alignment with it. I once auditioned for a James Bond role in a commercial and so obviously I went allin. I mean I wore a tuxedo, I did my hair, I shaved perfectly. I was ready. So I walked into the audition feeling like James Bond and I did the audition. I left confidently and that same day they called me and they said, "Luca, you didn't get the role." And like I said, that's very normal in the acting business. But then they said, "We do have another role we'd like to offer you." And this was a role for a Dutch television series that had been running for over 30 years and still is. And I've always wanted to play a role in in that series. And now the role itself was supposed to be very small, just two or three episode max. And so at first I wasn't sure if taking that role was the best move because what I really wanted was to someday become a part of that series permanently. And so I could either say no because it wasn't exactly the opportunity that I imagined or I could go allin and it was aligned with my thoughts about being an actor. So I said yes. And those two or three episodes eventually became eight years. I was on that show for an amazing eight years and it became one of the greatest acting experiences of my life. But there's another reason I'm telling you this story because the character that I played was considered to be a bad guy. And people would often ask me, "What is it like to play a bad guy? I mean, you're such a nice guy. I played the human being because no one wakes up in the morning thinking, you know what, I think I'm going to be a bad guy. People act according to stories, beliefs, thoughts, pain, environments. They build identities around it over time. And in order for me to play that character authentically, I had to understand his script. I had to understand what made him him, what made sense to him, what he believed about the world, what kind of experiences shaped him, what survival strategies he learned, or why did this behavior feel justified for him? I mean, for a role that was supposed to last just three episodes, the writers usually they don't create an entire backstories. And so what I did, I created my own backstory. I mean, nothing of it appeared on TV, but it made my character appear on TV in a credible way because I was acting from his belief system. I could justify his every decision, every line, every action because I believed what was true to him. We become the roles we rehearse. And sometimes the scripts that we're living by are inherited, conditioned, or they're just not true. And so at some point you have to ask yourself, what do I believe? Is this script going to get me where I want to go? Will it help me build the life that I want? Will it help me achieve the things I want? Because the thing is, you don't have to just be the actor in your story. You can be the script writer. You can be the director, the editor, the producer. You can be all of them. It's your story. You just have to start with your thoughts. Thoughts shape your behavior. Your behavior shapes your actions. And your actions is what what's going to get you results. And so it sounds simple, but simple is not always easy. So if you've spent your years telling yourself, I'm not confident. I'm not creative. I'm not disciplined. I'm not good enough. And notice this is not just about the things you say about yourself. But it's also about the things that you believe about the world and the people around you. things like people are always out to get me or success has to be hard or the world is unfair. The moment that you introduce a new thought, a different thought, you know, a different one from what you've been repeating all these years, your brain is naturally going to resist it because it's unfamiliar. And that's why change feels uncomfortable at first. That's why, you know, it will feel fake when you say you're confident while you've spent your years telling yourself that you're not. It can feel like you're lying to yourself. But what if the lie is the thought you believed to be true? It just doesn't feel like a lie because you've said it so many times. And so, you need to keep walking the path to create that new pathway. the same way people created the path through the grass in the park in front of our door. You shouldn't expect these new thoughts to work instantly or to feel true immediately. You just need repetition the same way you would build muscle when you go to the gym. You don't go to the gym one time and suddenly you become strong. You keep showing up and over time your body will start to change. So don't stay stuck with the script that you've learned. Question it, rewrite it, edit it, change it. You don't have to wait for permission to become that person that you want to be. Waiting doesn't get you moving. So start rehearsing that new version, that new script that is going to change your life. And I know that this sounds easier than it is. So I want to give you a little experiment to play around with. And I still do this sometimes when I don't feel confident enough or I just need that extra boost. I summon my alter ego. And one of them for me is that character I play for a year's Leon. Um, yeah, he has these qualities of confidence that I admire. And so now I want you to think of someone you admire, not because you want to become them, but because they have qualities that you wish you expressed more yourself. So, if you want more confidence, maybe, I don't know, you're thinking of Beyonce or Taylor Swift or James Bond, maybe they speak up more. Maybe they take up space differently. Maybe they walk into a room with a different kind of certainty. Or maybe it's someone that you actually know personally. And if you want to think differently about money, maybe you're thinking of people with a generous mindset around money or maybe someone who is more strategic and calm around it. Once you have that person in mind, ask yourself, how does this person probably think? How do they walk into a room? How do they stand? How do they respond to pressure? How do they speak? How do they handle uncertainty? Try to really understand how they think, how they feel, and how they behave. And then next time you find yourself in a situation where you need more confidence, more certainty, courage, or whatever quality you admire, try stepping into that situation from their point of view. Try entering your next meeting feeling like James Bond or Beyonce. And notice how your posture changes, your energy changes, the way you speak changes. You immediately feel the difference. You can keep using that person as a bridge to start changing your own thoughts, your own feelings, your own behavior. Or you can create your own alter ego based on qualities from different people you admire and then experiment with that. not to pretend to be someone that you're not, but as a way to experience what it feels to think and act and move differently. Maybe your alter ego speaks up more in meetings. Maybe they stop apologizing all the time. Maybe they trust themselves enough to stop playing small. And eventually, the goal is not to perform your alter ego. is to slowly integrate those parts into who you already are. All right, that's it for this conversation. I would love to hear who your alter ego is. So, drop a message below and you know, subscribe if you want to stay connected with me. And if this episode made you think of someone you care about, share it with them. It's one thing to do the work alone, it's a whole different thing. And it's a lot more fun if we do it together. I'm Luca and I look forward to seeing you in our next [music] conversation. Become [music] you can be. Take control of what's yours and live with intention. Step [music] by step. You were made for more. Go it all. [music] Your life, your story, your next move.