Perspective

YOUR LIFE IS MORE THAN YOUR CAREER!

Get a life:

Follow your loves, your curiosity, your idiosyncrasy, even your weirdness–outside of acting. Become yourself! You need to have more going on for you than just ambition and your career. Nobody wants to cast, let alone hang out with, a boring actor-robot. Without a life that feeds and inspires you, without anything of substance that you care about, you have nothing to bring as an artist to your work.

Protect your health:

Your health helps draw people and work to you. Think of yourself as a professional athlete. No one hires sickness or bad energy. Avoid “health vampires–” those who feed off your confidence and positive energy. Steer clear of those who whine, who radiate negativity, self-pity, who constantly undermine themselves and those around them with a seemingly insatiable need to fill their own emptiness. You’ve got better things to do than get caught up in someone else’s mantra of self-defeat.

Ground your happiness in healthy relationships and doing good work –not in whether or not you book a gig.

Focus on what you have control over:

Only you are responsible for your health, your attitude, your happiness and your professional and personal course corrections. You are allowed failures– over and over– so long as you learn from them! Fretting over what you have no real say in is a waste of mind-space and life.

Be brutally honest with yourself.

Accept an honest assessment from a pro for the compliment it is. Even a negative but accurate honest opinion can be gold to your growth as an actor.

Be prepared to survive success:

Success can be the worst thing to happen to many people. You will need to have yourself together so that you can handle the day when there is no one around you left to say “no” to you– but yourself.

Cultivate patience and flexibility:

Your career may well turn out differently that you thought or hoped. You must evolve as the industry evolves or be “selected out.” You are patiently building a web like a spider to catch its flies. When your webbing is in place, the payoff can begin.

You become who you hang out with.

Consider the company you keep: You take on the energy and trajectory of your peeps.

Get perspective:

Either you never really “arrive” or you arrived a while ago. Quit worrying about it and go do what it is that you do.

Ask for what you want in your career and life.

It’s surprising how many never ask or just ask once and then give up after just one “no.” Keep asking– but don’t be a pest about it. Persistence is vital. Don’t wanna ask? You ain’t gonna get.

Be prepared for opportunity!

Luck will come your way. The question is: Are you ready for it?

Enjoy the ride:

Give yourself a break. Reward yourself always. Celebrate victories.