When I’m (insert age) I’m going to have won a best actor Oscar and I’m going to be a well respected, in demand actor who everyone who’s anyone wants to work with. I’m going to live in Hollywood, I’ll attend all the red carpet premieres and there’ll be article after article written about me and what an inspiration I am to the industry. Tarantino will be begging to work with me but he’ll just have to wait because…
FOR NOW I’M TOO BUSY DREAMING ABOUT IT!
My REAL dream is to earn 40K a year in a job I HATE. Thank God for the real dream there – keeping us in check
REALITY CHECK ALERT!!!
Go back to your first dream & start MAKING IT HAPPEN. There’s no such thing as I can’t (my Great Grandma always used to say this to me and I live by it). The only reason you’re not making it happen now is because you don’t have a STRONG strategy in place (and maybe a few mind monkeys lurking, but that’s a different blog).
A STRONG WHATTY?
Strategy! There are 26,000 actors churned out of the drama schools in the UK EVERY.SINGLE.YEAR (figures from Equity). Just let that digest…. 26,000…. That’s bloody loads! Now imagine the number in the US – scary stuff! Or not… I can pinky promise you that not even half of those actors will “make it”, not a 1/3, not even a 1/5. They will end up back in the reality dream.
So what’s 1/5 of 26,000? 5,200
What’s 1/8 of 26,000? 3,250
What’s1/16 of 26,000? 1,625
WE’RE NOT IN A MATHS LESSON!
Ok, ok, I’m sorry, I know we’re not. I’m not trying to dissuade you in any way by revealing those figures; quite the opposite in fact. Here’s the thing, those figures give you an opportunity, an opportunity to get your stuff together and get planning where these other actors won’t. I WANT YOU TO MAKE IT. Many actors fail because a) they give up too soon or b) they don’t have a strong strategy in place. Us actors are great creative but when it comes to the business of acting we’re a little bit SLOPPY and that means we end up back in the reality dream or living hand to mouth for most of our lives.
PRETTY POINTLESS DREAMING THEN – WE’RE DOOMED!
NOPE – Keep dreaming but start doing.
Here are my top 3 tips to get you started with a strong strategy that I’d like you to put in place right away…
1. DREAM BIG
What do you want? Where do you want to be? Get CLEAR on this and create a vision board of everything you want. Stick it in a place where you will see it every day. I won’t go into why this works as that is a whole different blog, just trust me with this one; it works. I’ve been using vision boards for years.
2. HOW ARE YOU GOING TO GET THERE?
Make an action list of all the things you’re going to do to get to your big vision. If you’re not sure research successful actors , find out what their stories to success were and use them as a model. Will you need to give up your day job at some point? Will you need to move to London or New York/LA at some point? Will you need to set money aside at some point?
3. BREAK IT DOWN INTO MANAGEABLE CHUNKS
Rome wasn’t built in a day. We’d all like to run before we can walk and cut out the graft but unfortunately it doesn’t work like that. Get the chunks out of your head and onto paper, let’s start managing these chunks. Plan how you’re going to achieve them. I do this by writing down (and achieving) my 3 MITS (most important tasks) for each day, which is a bite sized way of building up to your bigger goals.
If you need accountability each day to ensure you do them join The Yorkshire Actors Network on Facebook. It’s a great place for finding support, motivation, accountability and networking.
