Do You Have Worthy Goals?

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In my last post I talked about 20 signs you’re already successful.  Most people think success is the creating, going after, and obtaining of goals.  As I write this we’re about to end one year and being another, a time when many are busy making plans, goals and resolutions for a future brighter than before.  However, no matter when you are reading this, goal setting and creating the path to your desire is something that can be accomplished any and every day.  Let’s take a closer look…

Being successful is a creative process and you’re engaged in it already.  It’s something we live, not an end state we arrive at.  The choices we make either align with or block the path to success.  This starts with choosing worthy goals.

Desire – seeds planted that lead to your divine passion and purpose.  Signs, dreams, feelings, visualizations and images.

Destiny – the experience of the growth of that desire.
If you set a goal that takes months or years to excel at (like being the best actor you can be craft-wise, or being represented by CAA) and this is a time span you can embrace because you love what you’re doing, your vision of this goal will make it easier to respond to setbacks that are normal on the path and you aren’t dismayed by external factors because your goal comes from within.

There’s a good chance you’re going to make a New Year’s resolution this year, and there’s also a pretty good chance you’re going to break it.

Why? It’s no secret that setting goals for yourself is hard, especially when many of the goals you have may be out of your control.  (like being represented by CAA!) But the things that ARE in your hands that are accomplish-able are still a challenge and the hard truth is that many people who make goals never achieve them.  So I recommend a shift in what you call a goal.

Here’s a short list of worthy goals.  They are all a progressive realization and while some I’m listing may feel a fit for you, some may not.  By the way, your goals can and will evolve…a major goal that will sustain you for a lifetime is to be self-aware.  I’m always, always, always working on this one and for me in this business of show, it is to be of service.  Your worthy goal can be a word or a phrase.

Love and compassion for all
Promoting Peace
Teaching others
Pursuing creative expression
Protecting the weak
Promoting culture
Exploration and discovery
Being of service
Protecting the environment

Choose a goal without worrying that it must be permanent.  Sit quietly and center yourself. Breathe deep and exhale, another deep breath, exhale, now a third breath, exhale.   Think about the goal you want to achieve…ask yourself “am I already living my goal at least part of the time?”  Is this pursuit enjoyable and energizing?  Does it come naturally and make me feel more like the person I want to be.  When you can say yes, then you’re making your success a living reality and thrive today as well as tomorrow.

I wish for you a bright future year, month, week and day ahead, full of purpose, passion and the pursuit of worthy goals!  Please feel free to share one or more of them in the comments section below.

“It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but within ourselves.” – Shakespeare

20 Signs You’re Succeeding At Your Career (Even If It Doesn’t Feel Like It)

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We’ve all had days, weeks, months and — for some — even years of dark times, stagnation and even depression over the state of our career. (There’s that TIME thing again!) Whether we fall into ruts of self-sabotage, loneliness, insecurity, or waning belief in our future, leading a happy, joyful life as an actor can sometimes feel like a fairy tale.  However, I’m here to let you know that just like dreams, fairy tales do come true!  Here’s how…

I often tell my ‘business of show’ students and coaching clients they’re doing soooo much better than they give themselves credit for. I can see it even if they can’t. It’s the old “can’t see the forest for the trees” analogy.

Most of us are so busy trying to dodge the bullets, grasping for any signs of progress, and looking for those outward results, that we forget to stop and appreciate the little victories along the way to our goals and dreams.  More on goals and goal setting in my next posts…

But for now, consider for a moment that you’re already doing a tremendous job. Living a life as an actor isn’t always an easy thing to do, but it can be most enjoyable when we start to see the good instead of focusing on the bad. (There’s that Law of Attracting thing again!)

You are actually living your career dreams already by recognizing these 20 signs:

1. Your relationships are less dramatic than they use to be. The drama is now mostly on the stage/set where it ought to be.

2. You may not have as much money as you want but you know and believe more is on the way. However, you’re not waiting to live a rich and abundant life NOW.

3. You’re no longer afraid to ask for help and support, thinking it is a sign of weakness. Instead you realize the juice of this business and you’re open to allowing someone to be a contribution on your journey.

4. Where you live feels like home. This means your actual living home and in your skin.

5. You’ve raised your standards. The bar is presently high and you’re setting it higher as you move forward.

6. You let go of things that don’t make you feel good. This could extend to people, experiences, and negative thinking. thumbs-up Feeling good is your top priority.

7. You have moments where you appreciate who you see in the mirror. Hey, it may not be all the time but when you recognize those moments, you grin from ear to ear with a pleasant knowingness.

8. You’re working on limiting your inner critic and consciously disavowing outer critics who are not out to serve your best interests. Bad reviews have nothing to do with you. Opinions are like…(you know what goes here!)

9. You’ve learned that setbacks and failure are part of career growth as well as self-growth. Fail your way to success. Correct and continue. There is no such thing as perfect.

10. You have a support system that includes people who would do anything for you. And that’s not by chance.

11. You hear “I love it”, “great job”, “wonderful effort” and “I love you” often, from family, friends, partners, and industry professionals.

12. You’ve acceptesuccess-girl in grassd what you can’t change, but are changing what you can’t accept. This tricky balancing act has become the norm.

13. You don’t complain as much, but instead focus on solutions. You recognize that you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it and search for a different approach. You’ve also limited the complaints you’re willing to listen to. (Take special note if you work background…a breeding ground for complaints.)

14. You don’t blame your parents, and accept them for who they are. OK, though I’m not a therapist, this is the big one!

15. You’ve stopped caring about what others think of you. Ahem, I meant THIS is the big one. By not care, I mean you understand that what other’s think about you is none of your business. (For “how to” do that, check out an excellent book written by Terry Cole Whittaker that I highly recommend called  “What You Think of Me is None of my Business.”)

16. You can celebrate other actor’s successes and really be happy for them.

17. You have a true passion that you are pursuing. It’s not the fame, money or your ego that is driving you. You feel this passion more often than not.

18. You’re able to accept compliments without deflecting. When acknowledged for your acting prowess, singing skill, or for the way you’ve inspired someone through your artistic expression, you simply smile and say “thank you”.

19. You feel connected to your work both on and off the stage. Every part of your career, not just the actual craft of acting, is part of your passion.No fail

20. You have many goals that have come true. Finishing that acting program, having fresh new headshots to distribute and making that notoriously scowling casting director smile during your audition are things you had on your never ending “to do” list and they got DONE! Up next, getting an agent, a co-star role on a series, a big check…You don’t discount the previously met goals as insufficient to the ones not yet realized.

Look to this list of 20 in times of doubt and when you’re just not feelin’ it. Sometimes a few reminders of just how absolutely awesome your career IS going can make a huge difference.

Tweaked and significantly added to by Lisa Gold. Original base content from Shannon Kaiser of www.the-open-mind.com  

Law Of Attraction Quotes To Live By

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In the last several years I’ve become a believer, a fan, a follower of one of the natural laws of the Universe, the Law of Attraction.  As I delve into the concept, then take the tenants into practice, I can see the materialization or manifestation of my smallest desires to some of my largest goals realized.  What you focus on expands.

It’s pretty obvious to me I am not alone in this thinking.  Here are some well known “thought leaders” that have been inspiring you for years and their most famous quotes on the very powerful Law of Attraction.

My hope is that these quotes inspire you as they have me.  Read them slowly and savor!  As usual, I welcome your thoughts in the comment section below.

 

Every single second is an opportunity to change your life, because in any moment you can change the way you feel.
– Rhonda Byrne

You create your own universe as you go along.
– Winston Churchill

It is the combination of thought and love which forms the irresistible force of the law of attraction.
– Charles Hammel

See the things that you want as already yours. Know that they will come to you at need. Then let them come. Don’t fret and worry about them. Don’t think about your lack of them. Think of them as yours, as belonging to you, as already in your possession.
– Robert Collier

What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.
– Mark 11:24

Take the first step in faith. You don’t have to see the whole staircase. Just take the first step.
– Dr Martin Luther King Jr.

All that we are is a result of what we have thought.
– Buddha

Imagination is everything. It is the preview of life’s coming attractions.
– Albert Einstein

Whatever the mind can conceive it can achieve.
– W. Clement Stone

How wonderful it is that nobody need wait a single moment before starting to improve the world.
– Anne Frank

Divine mind is the one and only reality.
– Charles Fillmore

Whether you think you can or think you can’t, either way you are right.
– Henry Ford

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small men who find it easier to live in the world they’ve been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It’s an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It’s a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.
– Muhammad Ali

If you don’t know where you are going, you’ll end up someplace else.
– Yogi Berra

To accomplish great things we must not only act, but also dream; not only plan, but also believe.
– Anatole France

Nurture your mind with great thoughts, for you will never go any higher than you think.
– Benjamin Disraeli

Nothing is, unless our thinking makes it so.
– Shakespeare

When one door of happiness closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us.
– Helen Keller

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambition. Small people always do that, but the really great ones make you feel that you, too, can become great.
– Mark Twain

Those who think they have no time for bodily exercises will sooner or later have to find time for illness.
– Edward Stanley

We are always getting ready to live but never living.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

I attract to my life whatever I give my attention, energy and focus to, whether positive or negative.
– Michael Losier

That which is like unto itself is drawn.
– Jerry and Esther Hicks

What you radiate outward in your thoughts, feelings, mental pictures and words, you attract into your life.
– Catherine Ponder

Nothing external to me has any power over me.
– Walt Whitman

Happiness is not a destination. It is a method of life.
—Burton Hills

If you can dream it, you can do it.
– Walt Disney

Whatever you create in your life you must first create in your imagination.
– Tycho Photiou

The grateful mind is constantly fixated upon the best. Therefore it tends to become the best. It takes the form or character from the best, and will receive the best.”
– Wallace D.Wattles

Be thankful for what you have, you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never ever have enough.
– Oprah Winfrey

A person is what he or she thinks about all day long.
– Ralph Waldo Emerson

Nurture great thoughts, for you will never go higher than your thoughts.
– Benjamin Disraeli

As soon as you start to feel differently about what you already have, you will start to attract more of the good things, more of the things you can be grateful for.
– Joe Vitale

Man, alone, has the power to transform his thoughts into physical reality; man, alone, can dream and make his dreams come true.
– Napoleon Hill

Cherish your visions and your dreams as they are the children of your soul, the blueprints of your ultimate achievements.
– Napoleon Hill

Gratitude is an attitude that hooks us up to our source of supply. And the more grateful you are, the closer you become to your maker, to the architect of the universe, to the spiritual core of your being. It’s a phenomenal lesson.
– Bob Proctor

A man is but the product of his thoughts. What he thinks he becomes.
– Gandhi

Everyone visualizes whether he knows it or not. Visualizing is the great secret of success.
– Genevieve Berhrend

I can accept failure, everyone fails at something. But I can’t accept not trying.
– Michael Jordan

I have decided to be happy, because it’s good for my health.
– Voltaire

Every saint has a past and ever sinner has a future
– Oscar Wilde

A moment of gratitude makes a difference in your attitude
– Bruce Wilkinson

Learning is a gift. Even when pain is your teacher.
– Maya Watson

I can be changed by what happened to me, but I refuse to be reduced by it.
– Maya Angelou

Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that.
– Martin Luther King Jr.

There is no cosmetic for beauty like happiness.
– Lady Blessington

All things are difficult before they are easy.
– Thomas Fuller

You are in the perfect position to get there from here.
– Abraham Hicks

Givers get given to.
– Russell Simmons

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
– Judy Garland

The entire universe is a great theatre of mirrors.
– Alice Bailey

Love everyone. Trust few. Paddle your own canoe.
– Anonymous

Criticism is something we can avoid easily
by saying nothing, doing nothing,
and being nothing.
– Aristotle

Genius is the ability to receive from the universe.
– I Ching