Picture of you

Is it really possible that the person who portrays the formidable Logan Roy can lose sight of his skills, his focus, his purpose? Even his identity? Turns out, it is.

If anyone is an example of crafting a long-term creative career, it’s Brian Cox. Alongside his role in ‘Succession’, he’s played Hannibal Lecter, King Lear, Winston Churchill and over 100 other characters in film, TV & theatre.

But sometimes Brian Cox finds himself stuck in a rut. To get back to himself, he uses a wonderfully simple technique.

When teaching drama, Cox emphasizes the importance of his students keeping one thing with them at all times.

A single photograph.

A photograph of themselves, as a child, doing something they enjoyed.

It doesn’t matter what they were doing or where they were. All the photograph needs to do is capture a moment when they were full of wonder and imagination.

That’s all.

Cox believes everything else we ingest beyond that time in our lives is pretty much propaganda anyway - hence the value of the photograph.

In fact, he believes this one act is the simplest and most valuable thing you can do to stay connected to the real you.

Just pull the photo out of your pocket whenever you feel the need.

I think I’ve figured out which photo I’m going to use.

What’s yours?