5 Easy Ways to Stay Motivated
Face it:
There are days when pursuing your career as an actor sucks. Here are a few simple steps to getting your mojo back, keep you motivated and staying in ACTion!
Life is like those signs that say “You Are Here”! What you make of WHERE you are is up to you. Even if you weren’t an actor and no matter what you did/do for a living, the key to success is extraordinary performance, day after day after day.
And that’s only possible if you make optimism, expectancy, and enthusiasm part of your daily experience.
It’s easier if you’re pursuing your life’s dearest dreams. But what if, like almost most of us in this crowded community, you’ve got an additional “side job” that’s not exactly your ideal. What if the pursuit of your dreams, faced with consistent rejection and doing the small stuff gets you down?
Here’s how to maintain a go-getter outlook, even when the going gets tough:
STEP #1: Realize That YOU Are in Control
Your attitude isn’t controlled by the outside world. That’s an illusion, a fantasy that, if you believe it, you’re simply using to escape responsibility for managing this all-important part of your career. REALLY, that’s your toughest job right there…not the acting career!
For example, if you run into snowstorm that’s making you late to an audition, you can get frustrated and start cussing…OR you can look forward to the appreciation that the casting director might feel because you were committed enough to fight the weather to make the casting call when others would bag it.
It’s all in how you see it!
STEP #2: Neutralize Negative Thoughts
Stop letting exterior events trigger negative thoughts.
Suppose you’re on your way to an important call back but are running late because of traffic and transportation situations out of your control. That IS a problem, but if you get flustered, you’ve got TWO problems: the fact that you’re late, and the fact that you’re flustered.
And if you walk into the call back flustered, the casting director might wonder if you’re moody and unreliable. So now you’ve got THREE problems.
To get a better result (and achieve a better attitude), modify your interpretation of the exterior events that tend to trigger the negative outlook. Once the events in your life take on a different, more useful meaning, they won’t trigger a bad attitude.
STEP #3: Reduce Your News Media Consumption (this is HUGE!)
Today’s mainstream news programming mostly consists of horrible stories of destruction, death and pain. (Pain = Trump…oops did I just let my opinion show? If not now, when? Jeeze). This constant flow of negative images automatically creates a negative attitude about life, the world, and everything in it. It definitely affects me, and I assert, you too.
If you want to maintain a positive attitude, you MUST reduce or even eliminate your exposure to broadcast news programming. Rather than waste time with that stuff, add material and content into your life that will help you become more successful in your acting career. Study great actors, read the Hollywood Reporter as well as my blogs and Facebook posts. (Had to get that in there!)
Start and end each day reading something positive. If you’re on the move, rather than listening to negative, emotionally-charged talk radio in your car or harsh music on your iPod, listen to motivational CD’s or music that raises your spirits and inspires you. I LOVE listening to stuff that enhances and makes a difference in my life. It makes me smile!
STEP #4: Avoid Negative People (even more HUGE!)
You probably have a few friends, relatives, or acquaintances who make you feel tired and drained. They always seem to have something bad to say; criticisms come far more often than compliments. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!
These folks are toxic to your attitude (and to your success) because, if they’re not actively tearing down your enthusiasm, they’re trying to get you to think the same way they do about the world. What a drag! Seriously.
If you want to maintain a positive attitude, limit your daily exposure to these people. OK, I know some of them are your relatives…but don’t go to lunch with the “grouse and grumble” crowd. If you’ve got to “deal” with folks that don’t add value to YOUR world, let them go. These are “crazy makers” according to Julia Cameron, author of “The Artists Way” and I agree 110%.
STEP #5: Adopt a Positive Vocabulary (HUGEST of all!)
The words that you use—both what you speak aloud and your internal thoughts—have an influence in how you perceive what’s happening in the world. Sometimes you’re aware, but mostly you are not.
All words carry a certain amount of emotional baggage, especially if you’ve been saying the same things for a LONG time and/or over and over again.
The words “can’t,” “don’t,” and “won’t” mean essentially the same thing…it’s not happening! But they carry very different emotional baggage. If you “won’t” do something, but tell yourself that you “can’t” over and over and over, it will intensify the stubbornness to produce the action/result. Both are a choice and one is a learned behavior. The words you use CREATE your life and thus, your outcomes. Want better outcomes? Start by observing your words.
Your life is a network of conversations and being AWARE of what comes out of your mouth and enters your ears is the first place to start.
These 5 ways to stay motivated are brought to you by me, Lisa Gold, and take them or leave them…I can assure you I use ALL of the above to keep me motivated on a daily basis. I pass them lovingly on to you!
What ways do you use, create or have figured out as you go to get and stay motivated when the circumstances “bring you down”? I’d love to hear some personal stories that make a difference for others. L 🙂
Can’t thank you enough for this blog on this day. Perfect timing! My method: lately when I find myself entertaining one negative thought after another, I stop and say “Something wonderful will happen today!” Astonishingly, when I do that, more often than not, the phone rings with an audition…or a callback for something I’d written off. Apparently, expecting “something wonderful” turns the universe in a new direction…
Wow Lisa! What a great post!!! I totally agree and I think positive thinking is why people achieve success whether it’s in the acting industry or any other careers!
Great ways to stay positive:
1) Have great amazing actor friends! Over the years, they kept me motivated in so many ways! I am so thankful to have them!
2) Listing to motivation CDs or books: My favorites: Tony Robins, Napoleon Hills.
3) Meditation and Yoga! – Helps me drop some anxiety and live in the NOW!
4) Keep practicing your craft and remembering why you are doing this in the first place – Love!
Emilie Martel
http://www.EmilieMartel.com
Napoleon Hill is a favorite of mine. “Think and Grow Rich” is on my recommended reading list on the website – https://www.actoutsidethebox.com/resources. It seems it’s MORE than simply positive thinking. It takes something on an individual’s part to “create” that kind of thinking in the first place. Kudos to you for engaging in the kinds of practices that make this crazy business less crazy!
The news media consumption one is huge, I agree! The more you can stay away from negativity the better.
Lisa,
Always on point. (as usual)
Negativity is rampant around us and can be filtered out with some
conscious effort. We can always make a positive mental choice in the
way we perceive an event. We just have to choose to do it!
I was just presented with a situation that would have normally had me
climbing the walls. I chose to look at it as a learning lesson for both myself
and for the student filmmaker involved in what not to do. For me, taking
a last minute booking without sufficient contact information or research
into the people I would be dealing with.
For him, losing a professional prepared actor who, having arrived a
half an hour early, discovered there was no such street address, wrote
an immediate email and receiving no response for an hour, then went to
lunch with his financial advisor and returned home.
When the call did come I calmly explained that I should have been
contacted earlier that morning with an up to date address change and
that I didn’t do business this way, and neither did any other professional
in this industry.
I resisted the urge to fly off the handle or say anything negative because I
had already looked at it from the point of view that there had to be some
kind of reason why things would go down the way they did.
I may not know what it it right now, but I’m sure that we both learned
or benefitted from the experience in some way.
BTW, Napoleon Hill is also a favorite of mine as well as Wayne Dwyer
and Joe Vitale. As the saying goes:
“If you think you can, or you think you can’t, … you’re probably right.”
Continued success,
GP