The odds of you being on this earth are 400 Trillion to 1. Wrap your mind around that.
You have already defied the odds simply by walking this earth.
Approach your career with that perspective in mind.
Let me ask you a question, what did it feel like the first time you saw your name on a cast list?
Think back to it. Remember the jitters in your stomach from being unsure if you could perform, combined with excitement. It was amazing, right?
That’s how each audition should feel.
So often, actors lose sight of why we got into the industry. We get caught up in the accolades and fanfare.
But it’s when we return to the core of our craft that we experience success.
When you go into an audition, knowing that you are going to get the job, you leave everything on the table.
You play your heart out and it shines through.
So how do you do that?
Will Smith said it this way…
When people try to do something big, they tend to fill up with fear. Then, they act from that fear.
If you have a goal to make the next great American film and win more Oscars than anybody in history, the fear that is triggered by the enormity of that goal can be paralyzing.
There will never be enough time in the day and you will never have all of the resources necessary to achieve that goal, if you take it at face value.
He often tells a story of building a wall outside of his dad’s store when he was a kid. He says, “I didn’t go after the wall as the goal. The goal became to lay this break perfectly, and then the next one, and the one after that.”
A year and a half later the project was finally finished, as the bricks became the wall.
A journey of 1000 miles starts with a single step, you’ve probably heard that expression too.
So, as you are working on building your career, get laser focused on just the next brick. Don’t look at the big picture, sometimes you have to shelf that in order to make real progress.
I once had an acting coach drill me on the fundamentals of acting. We would work on the same material day after day, until I finally broke and told him I was ready to move on to something else.
He looked at me and said “that’s why you can’t. If you are not obsessed with this, then you are not ready for what’s coming next.”
It too was the same concept said in a different way. He was reminding me to focus on the bricks, instead of the wall.
Actors are a very unique breed. We’re creatives and many of us are driven by ego, which is a rare combination.
I said this special report was a deep one, so hear me out for a moment.
If you want to make real career progress, you have to get honest with yourself and get to know yourself. That way you can be laser focused on the task at hand.
When we try to do everything, we end up not doing much of anything.
If you are focusing on growing your social media platform, ask yourself how much effort you really put into figuring it out and doing it with a purpose.
If that assessment won’t lead to the results you’re after, then take a step back and focus on only that one brick. Forget about everything else and work on just that for 2 weeks. If you master that, you will make more progress over the next 60 days, than you have ever made on social media.
That’s the power of laser focus, and I even created a tool that will give you an advantage on social media. You can get the details on that here.
You know that you should be marketing yourself to the industry daily, but if you haven’t done a mailout in a while then you need to recalibrate your efforts.
Focus on that one brick again. Here’s how I can help with that one.
I want to be clear on something, this is not empty positive thinking and expect your dream career to fall into your lap (though even that has its place but that’s for another time).
We also aren’t talking about simply hustling and working hard to get there either. Of course, those things are important but what I intended to bring you was the nuts and bolts strategy of how to go about that along with some tools that can help fast track your success.
So what will you do first Grasshopper?
What brick will you focus on laying? Let me know in the comments below or shoot me an email. I read every one that comes through and I’m always happy to help however I can because my goal is too…
See you at the top,
Scott