Comedian Rob Auton on staying motivated at the Edinburgh Fringe: 'The effort is the best part'

I have a memory of doing press-ups in July 2023. It was before I was due to go up to the Edinburgh Festival to perform every day for a month. While doing the press-ups I was listening to the song “Not Giving In” by Rudimental. It was loud and those three words were really getting to me. NOT GIVING IN. What was I not giving in to? Myself I guess.

I was thinking about being on stage and trying my best. There’s two-thirds of me that wants to try and a third of me that doesn’t. Most of the time the motivated proportion of me dominates my existence but sometimes that other third is absolutely rabid. I fight against it. I had been going up to the Fringe, doing shows and touring for 10 years and sometimes on rail replacement bus services I would want to give in. Sack it off. Choose an easier life for myself but so far I haven’t given in.  

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My name is Rob Auton, I am a writer and performer. At the Edinburgh Festival this year I will be playing the character of CAN, in the story of the world’s number one motivational speaker that I have made up. Every morning when doing the Edinburgh Fringe I watch motivational videos, they can be a bit on the nose but I watch them and often feel more up for challenges afterwards.

I am highly affected by words. I take what people say very seriously. I know actions speak louder than words but it doesn’t mean that words can’t be loud. Sometimes words speak louder than actions. If you take a cup of tea from someone and don’t say thank you, what has been louder? Your action of taking the tea or your not saying thank you?

Motivational videos and Instagram accounts have really helped me over the years. I am fearful of letting myself down and the way I counter that fear is through action. 

‘Action Solves Everything’ is a Post-it note I have on my wall above my laptop in my office. ‘The future depends on what you do today’ is another. I believe in those statements. ‘Act like the person you want to become.’ I think it’s about finding the right words that people have said and living with them for a bit. Some can become real mantras. One thing that I say to myself is: “I Love Today. I Love Today.” 

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So no matter how bleak I find it I am still alive, I am breathing, I am here in some capacity. I can see the sky. My heart is beating. I love today. Often it’s really tough to say that when it hits the fan but even in the darkest moments I try to find the strength to say it to myself. I try to tell myself it’s all up from now on. We can change it.  

There’s one piece of motivation I always go back to that says “Every day you don’t act on it you feel it.” That goes back to action solving everything. Earlier this year I read the book Atomic Habits by James Clear and that book has changed the way I look at goals. The only way to achieve anything is through daily action. Putting habits in place. The days really add up in a very tangible way. We get older but if we do something every day towards a goal, you look back after a month and see how much we can put into time.

“When you fall in love with the process rather than the product, you don’t have to wait to give yourself permission to be happy.” This quote from the book really hit me and synced up with what The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle taught me. I need to love what I’m doing right now. This, the now. I saw another video that said “stop looking for the third thing”. 

Basically don’t look for praise or an outside result. A tap on the head. Write the show to the best of your ability, perform it to the best of your ability. The rest has nothing to do with me. 

The effort is the best part. Me trying to write this article. The writing of it is all there is. Typing, deleting. The press-ups themselves are where the living is. Pushing ourselves up into new versions of us. The breath. The effort. Not giving in.

CAN: The Story of a Man called CAN is at Assembly Roxy in Edinburgh until 24 August.

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