Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Emma Evans. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.
Emma, we’re thrilled to have you sharing your thoughts and lessons with our community. So, for folks who are at a stage in their life or career where they are trying to be more resilient, can you share where you get your resilience from?
I have always been a resilient person, but the resilience that came about in me after being diagnosed with a chronic illness was unmatched with what I thought I was capable of. I suffer from a strange unknown plethora of autoimmune conditions that cause me a lot of pain, constantly, with no real explanation or relief options. Putting up with it for 3 years now, I have often been almost pushed to a breaking point. I was forced to completely revamp the way I live my life in order to feel even remotely okay at certain times. Physical fitness was really important in that process. I have been a lifelong dancer, but when I became ill and my body started to hurt so much, so often, it was challenging to continue with any physical activity. I had to make a deal with myself, after countless frustrating doctors appointments and being left time and again with no answers as to how to fix my health, that the only way forward was to just try. And so I began to be active again, even though it hurt. When you work out hard, your body hurts a lot, particularly when doing ballet. Pain is at the core of that dance form. However, returning to ballet after a hiatus, something was different with me – I was now really used to being in pain. And the pain that you feel when dancing (with some exceptions) is good pain, it’s a pain that you benefit from. I was able to push myself beyond any limits I had reached before and I’m proud to say I’m in the best physical shape of my life now. I’m even considering training for a marathon in future years as I have picked up running and am very into that as well. This journey taught me resilience that I have now extended into other aspects of my life as well. I brought my resilience into my education, appreciating learning and understanding the importance of it like never before. I am working every day to push my brain as hard as I push my body and the enlightenment that comes from it brings about a wash of relief. I am more in touch with my artistic side than I have been for all the years I have been a filmmaker, and suddenly many of the creative conflicts that stressed me out for years don’t seem so daunting. I still suffer pain every day, sometimes pretty extreme, no matter how hard I try to be healthy in every way, no matter what new experimental treatment I’m trying to appease it. However, I have always believed that everything happens how it is meant to, and I am so grateful for the wisdom this suffering has given me in regard to longevity and purpose. I am strangely excited for the health challenges I know I will inevitably face ahead, as I know the more I overcome suffering the more I will grow, and it excites me to think of all the people I will be able to help and hopefully inspire with the unique perspective I have been blessed with.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
For many years now I have produced independent short and feature narrative films. My company, Neon Shark Media, is gearing up for some exciting upcoming years. My next project branches into the episodic documentary world as I am prepping a show entitled “Capitalize,” a show featuring successful young artists and entrepreneurs that highlights their success strategies and methods. A multitude of other projects in the works include podcast content, social media content, and more narrative films and shows. The core of all projects I take on these days centers around inspiring people to be healthy, both physically and mentally, which can be worked on in many ways. Capitalize is the first step in a larger goal to produce captivating and informative docu-series.
There is so much advice out there about all the different skills and qualities folks need to develop in order to succeed in today’s highly competitive environment and often it can feel overwhelming. So, if we had to break it down to just the three that matter most, which three skills or qualities would you focus on?
A great quality or skill that I wish I had adopted earlier myself is to stick with your strengths and improve on those foundations. Making tremendous progress goes faster when you focus your time solely on what you’re best at, and the further you advance in your life the more possible it becomes to pursue alternate avenues, either instead or in addition, or to take advantage of new opportunities you didn’t have before. Learning the ins and outs of business and law have helped me to understand nuances about the work I had already been doing for years that I didn’t picture the same way before. Having a true appreciation and thirst for knowledge is essential to growing your perspective of what you can do with the skills you already have. I am very early in my journey myself, only 21 years old, but I know that continued education is a concept that I will carry with me for the rest of my career and push myself to stay on top of. Above all, I think optimism is the most important quality anyone who wishes to make progress needs to have. Taking roadblocks as opportunities to learn and keeping a positive attitude makes bigger, better differences in a life and a career than what is required to adopt the mindset.
We’ve all got limited resources, time, energy, focus etc – so if you had to choose between going all in on your strengths or working on areas where you aren’t as strong, what would you choose?
Building off my response to the previous question – honing in on strengths is key. Sometimes when I think about the uncertainty of the future, I realize I let myself get caught up in thinking about all the things that I could be doing in order to best allocate my time and prioritize. However, too much of this and you’re losing valuable time to make smaller things happen, now. Just because you are pursuing one avenue does not mean you can’t pursue another later on, and in fact it just adds to and diversifies your options to leverage when it comes time to problem solve for a new action. Being well rounded is important too, but allowing yourself time to really become a master in whatever your strength is teaches you things about yourself that aren’t as easy to take the time to notice when you are constantly shifting your direction.
Contact Info:
- Website: theemmaevans.com
- Instagram: instagram.com/theemmaevans
- Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/the-emma-evans/
