Television has a reputation for being a notoriously harsh mistress. When done well, all the glitz and glamour appear effortless to audiences, but behind the scenes, stress is often the name of the game. In a make-or-break industry, finding a way to deal with the long hours, warring wills — and a near-constant barrage of stimuli simultaneously pulling your attention in different directions — without coming apart at the seams is essential to survival, both personal and professional. Someone who knows that particular reality better than most is veteran television executive Randy Douthit, the director/producer of Amazon Freevee’s Emmy Award-winning reality court TV show Judy Justice.
Fortunately for Douthit, an early interest in meditation became a lifelong avocation that’s helped him not only cope, but thrive in the fast-paced world of entertainment that routinely chews up and spits out unwitting talent that isn’t up to the challenge.
Randy Douthit on the Teachings of Philosopher Walter Russell
Douthit reveals his introduction to alternative philosophy and meditation began in college. Initially, he was searching for methods to help hone his mental focus in order to achieve better grades. One of Douthit’s earliest and most profound influences was the teachings of American artist Walter Russell, a proponent of the spiritual-based New Thought Movement and author of the seminal text, The Universal One.
The pillars of Russell’s belief system rest on the precept that “all knowledge exists in the God-Mind” and is ever-present in what he termed “this electrical universe of creative expression.” This knowledge is our human birthright. “You have but to plug into it,” Russell told author Glenn Clark for The Man Who Tapped the Secrets of the Universe, his biography of the artist. “You do not have to learn anything; in fact, all you have to do is recollect it, or recognize it, for you already have it as your inheritance.”
However, while he could point someone to the path, Russell cautioned that each individual must make their own way to the truth: “The only way you can find it is through being alone with your thoughts at sufficiently long intervals to give that inner voice within you a chance to cry out in distinguishable language to you, ‘Here I am within you.’ That is the silent voice, the voice of nature, which speaks to everyone who will listen … When you are alone, the universe talks to you in flashes of inspiration. You will find that you will suddenly know things which you never knew before.”
Douthit credits the practice of meditation with much of his ability to master the challenges and pressures inherent to his work and life in general. “I like to meditate … early in the morning just to kind of make sure everything goes smoothly,” he says.
Douthit says his daily 15-minute meditation sessions help him level out anxiety and aid him in reconnecting to the creative forces of the universe. “You open up your mind and relax and just let things happen. You don’t want to force your thoughts. You just want to be able to think of good things and then stop thinking totally. Just open up and relax. Relax.”
How Randy Douthit Uses a Mind/Body To Stay on Track
Randy Douthit has been with the iconic Judge Judy Sheindlin from the beginning of her groundbreaking 27-plus-year TV career. Mental preparation, he reveals, holds the key to getting into the zone and staying there. It’s a practice he applies both at work and when he’s indulging in his favorite off-hours pastime, auto racing.
On the racetrack, Douthit’s strategy always includes taking a few slow preliminary laps that allow him to suss out the course mindfully. “We check the corners, because you don’t want to be doing 90 miles an hour coming up on a corner and … spin out,” he explains. “It’s not good for you, nor is it good for your body, so we take it easy. We figure out what the track is like. We see how fast we need to turn corners or not.”
You have to “prepare to go fast,” he maintains. Being able to harness and transform that initial burst of energy into a sustained force is part of what’s allowed him to deliver the goods and keep things fresh time and again on the track and on the small screen. “Not only do I produce the shows, I’m also the director,” Douthit explains. “I’ve got to make sure the cameras are covering the right thing at the right time. And much of that is very similar to racing because if you’re not hitting the right thing at the right time, you could be in trouble — and we don’t want that.”
Randy Douthit believes his personal form of Zen has kept him at the top of a very demanding game for decades and will continue to inform everything he does. “That inner ecstasy of the mind is the secret fountain of perpetual youth and strength in any man,” Walter Russell told his biographer. “He who finds it finds omnipotence and omniscience.” While his quest for enlightenment may not lead him to omnipotence or omniscience, Randy Douthit is happy to settle for the fulfilling joys of creating top-notch television — but a few more Emmy Awards along the way certainly wouldn’t hurt either.