How a unique hobby can support personal and professional self-development

Spending time doing activities you enjoy is a fantastic way to nurture your wellbeing and self-development. 
For Alexandru, acting and improv theater have played a huge role in his personal and professional journey. 
We met him to learn more about his experience.

Alexandru, please tell us a bit about yourself.

I started my career in an IT department in the banking industry, and that's where I had my first training experience with a trainer that blew my mind. During that session, he asked us: "If money wasn't an issue, what would you like to do for a living?" I heard myself saying: "I’d love to teach people something.”

I soon realized this was what I wanted to do, so I jumped on the learning bandwagon and restarted my career from scratch. 

Fast forward ten years and five different industries, and I am now fully committed to serving other people and enabling their growth. Today, I am Learning Manager, and part of the Learning and Culture team here, and responsible for Romania, Ireland, and Bulgaria.

So, you used to be in front of the audience, but how come you are now on stage acting in Improv theatre?

I fell in love with acting from the first moment I stepped on stage. And little did I know how much this would become a beautiful and therapeutic process! I began acting, hoping that I would become a better actor, and instead, I discovered myself.

I was going through a lot at the time. After my father died back in 2014, I suppressed everything I felt about the loss. It all erupted as a volcano in 2016, prompting a series of poor decisions both in my career and personal life. It was a time for change and I decided to follow my childhood dream and try acting. 

I thought of myself as a terrific actor as I had more than 20 years of pretending under my belt. However, I was amazed to find out that acting isn't about pretending. Instead, it's about being authentic and showing your true emotions.

You need to put a bit of yourself in every role; otherwise, you are simply pretending and lying to people. We have a saying in theater: "You don't need to feel everything the character is feeling, but it needs to cost something, to take a toll on you."

I realized then that I have worn so many masks throughout the years and lost myself somewhere underneath as a result. 

From that moment on, acting became my journey of self-development, to find myself and to heal. It helped me to process the loss of my father and provided the support I needed. Both acting and therapy complemented each other, and it became a positive cycle that enabled me to heal, grow and find myself under all the rubble. It helped me to bring myself forward and become who I am today. 

How does acting contribute to your career development?

Today I am still doing it. Later on, I realized that I could bring much of what I learned from acting to the business world:

• Being good at improv and acting masters your presentation skills
• It creates better engagement during the training sessions
• Working with the camera helped me a lot with the digital transition and online learning. 
• When you are working with a director, you need to change things on the spot. 

It's just like in business, where you have an idea in your mind, but the customer is asking you for something slightly different. You can go ahead and try to push your idea, but more often than not, it doesn't work. 
So being able to adapt my approach and how I communicate with others is one of the greatest gifts acting has blessed me with.