I teach a couple of acting classes a week, one on Tuesday nights where I give the actors in the group a cold read scene and then the second half of the class I shoot their prepared on camera audition scenes. During the shooting of one of the students, I somehow came up with an analogy for the acting process. It started out something like this: the feedback I gave to the actor I was working with was to listen more and be in the moment.
I likened it to being a bobsled racer, in that you've run the track umpteenth number of times. And even though you're familiar with the course, you still have to be in the moment to navigate nuances that the route presents. Because the track will behave differently each time, based on how many runs you've done and how many runs have been done on it prior to you coming onto it.
As well as when the stakes go up because there is an actual prize for performance on the line, that's when the adrenaline gets pumping, and you have to manage calming your nerves and excitement and try to stay in the moment.
Because it's being and reacting in the moment that will produce your best work, and your best results. And if your attention slips away momentarily, the results could be disastrous (I used the death of a skier in the 2010 Olympics here in Vancouver as an example).
The same principle applies in the craft of acting, though the physical stakes are considerably lower.
That's my share for today, it's been a few days since I posted.
WARM HUGS!