Your Success is in your Thinking
We live in a big universe full of possibilities, especially for creative people like you. If you stop to think about how vast this reality really is, you might go a little nuts … or maybe become fully enlightened, depending on the day of the week!
Figuring out how we rein all of this in to something tangible in our creative career can easily lead to complicated over thinking. I like to call this analysis paralysis. One of the only things you really need to know though, is that you’re not separate from anything or anyone out there. Everything is connected, including you and me.
The Law of Attraction is real and I’m a big believer of it and if you’re reading this, I think you are too. It’s why you’re on my email list or website so I’m going to be talking a lot more about it from here on out.
It’s our thinking and subsequent actions that determine what comes into our lives, good and bad, and what sometimes seems bad at the start (I like to call this uncomfortable) could actually be good for us ultimately. This is growth and development, expansion and ACTing Outside the Box! (see how I did that, LOL?)
It’s all good, except for one little part: the condition that says “First I have to DO this or that.” That’s called waiting for life to occur. That’s called means-to-an-end thinking. “First I have to DO this, then I can have that.”
It really doesn’t work that way my friends. When you put conditions on what can come into your life and career, your mind will never let you feel like you’re doing enough. You don’t feel like you’re enough already, so that’s exactly what you’re going to get: not enough. Starving artist is based on this precept. NOT ENOUGH.
“When I’m better, then I can attract the right agent. The person I am right now is not enough.” Or “if I had done is 
that way in the audition instead, I could have gotten the job.” Guess what, that’s a habitual mindset. That’s a mind pattern that will never leave you.
No matter where you go or who you’re with or how you do things, your mind will always tell you, “You’re not ready. You’re not enough. If I just have six more months of working on myself, my craft or when I get an audition with that casting director, then (fill in the blank here.)
“Can you imagine the kind of career I could have if I enroll in that MFA program?” “I’ll be unstoppable once I get an agent!” “Once I finish my summer program at this acting studio, then I’ll be ready to rock it.”
Here’s a fact: Life is now. Life is not, “When I’m perfect, that’s when I can have the right career.”
Stop waiting. Be open right now for the universe to unfold in front of you. Be open for the right situation to come your way. Just go with the flow.
Your success is in your thinking.
There’s a hidden payoff in sabotaging yourself like this: not succeeding at something. What a great excuse you’ve given yourself. What a great reason for not being able to have the career of your dreams.
In fact, it’s the GOLD medal of reasons, pun intended! It keeps you stuck even though that reason is painful because deep down inside you know you’re ready for the success you’re looking for.
I’m not saying that we shouldn’t continue striving to be better because that’s the juice of life, right? But for goodness sake don’t beat yourself up for every little flaw, or even the big ones for that matter!
Let go of all that. You don’t need to completely structure every second of how this is going to work for you. Be open. Smile and relax. Chill out.
You’re the right person, right now. You’re good enough as you are. Can you improve? Of course. We can always improve. Once you really get this, you’ll understand forward progress without making your happiness depend upon it. I love to learn and I love to teach because there’s always something more out there to add to your already AWESOMENESS!
The most important thing you can learn is that dwelling on the “if I” and “when I” and “it would be better if” or “if I had that, then I would” takes you out of the present moment.
Thinking about the perfect future is what stops you from having the perfect present. It’s the only thing that stops you.
To your success, Lisa (remember, it’s in your thinking!)
Thank you Lisa. This really helped me today. I had a terrible workshop with a casting director yesterday who basically told me I wasn’t skinny enough I wasn’t young enough looking, I was too tall etc.. I felt completely devastated, beaten down and not good enough. I cried the whole way home. This article came at the perfect time. It made me feel so much better, like the universe is on my side and I am awesome just as I am and I have everything it takes to achieve greatness. Thank you!
Oh Ashley, I’m sure I read your comment back when you wrote it, but honestly sometimes my busy life prevented me from focusing on things that truly matter. Please forgive the almost 2 YEAR delay in my response. I am back with an inspired focus on helping actors navigate this kind of experience with grace and ease. No the CD should never have said anything like this to you, however a think skin and resilience with the KNOWLEDGE that that is just one person’s opinion and has no really lasting effect on you is what I’d offer. There’s the circumstances and then how we react to them. One thing we have control over, the other we do not. In the end, the only opinion about you and your talent or appearance is YOURS!
Hi Lisa, I have never written to you, but I do read your newsletters. I am very happy that you have written this blog! Of everything that you have shared in your emails & newsletters, I am most interested in and inspired by your personal journeys. You have obviously created a number of careers and income streams, and I look forward to you sharing more in your future blogs.
Diana I thank you for your kind words and am replying here 2 years later! Even more experiences to share…