Take it Easy

There’s a book out there called “Life Was Never Meant to be a Struggle” by Stuart Wilde. The title pretty much says it all, yes?

You sure wouldn’t know it by the way actors live and work at their career. The fact is many actors suffer through the journey of reaching their dreams.  They do what they do because they were taught (incorrectly) they have to, because they think or heard they should, or quite simply have NO IDEA what to do to have their hopes and wishes come true—BUT they blindly keep on keepin’ on even in the face of personal unhappiness or financial struggle.

And that’s exactly what a lot of actors’ biggest struggle is when it comes to getting acting work. We don’t do what we love because we’re not clear about what we want.

When I coach or lead certain goal oriented seminars, I usually start out by asking actors to share their big dream, then their plan to attain it.  I get a lot of blank stares.  And instead I get a laundry list of hopes, wishes and desires, but no measurable, attainable results and any INSPIRED actions to get there.

The first place to look, of course, is at your natural talents. Natural talents are gifts from the Universe, gifts from spirit, or whatever you want to call your creator. These are things that you do well, that you didn’t have to learn to do. You’re basically born with this skill. It comes easy to you. It’s something that people look at you and go, “You’re natural at that.” And most importantly, you like doing it!  That’s the GIFT of talent you are offering the world.

But how do you get to offer your gifts and make a great living? The most obvious reason a lot of actors never do is fairly simple and not at all a spectacular revelation.  They haven’t created loving what they do OFF the stage or set or class—and struggle through life because of it—oh yeah, and the fear: fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of change, fear of rejection, fear of looking foolish, fear of disapproval and even fear of success!

I believe the acting business is not meant to be a struggle.  While acknowledging that struggles do happen in the form of detaching yourself from some of what your acting teachers sold you..(i.e. you’re talented, now all you need is an agent) growth is hard in areas you don’t have a lot of experience in, but once we get through it and become more AWARE of just how easy this stuff is, the struggle lightens.

We have to unlearn what we believe in order to escape the struggles that the illusion of becoming an overnight success and not having that happen.  Once you get it straight in your head that a BIG BREAK doesn’t come out of no where and caused by something you just started last Tuesday, it’ll make things easier.

Not to get TOO woo woo, but I BELIEVE we are part of a divine source of unlimited power—creators of our own experiences. That’s the reason we chose to be actors…who after all are the ultimate creators.  Actors with a strong spiritual connection tend to find that life is easier, living life knowing who they really are and that what they really want is to fully express their art rather than playing a role in a show for a few weeks.  Heck yeah, we WANT the gigs, but that’s just pleasure with a paycheck!

When you “take it easy” then everything begins to open up and flow easily too—work, relationships, finances, etc. Life really shouldn’t be that hard. Unlearn, discover, apply, and for goodness sake, take it easy!

Now it’s your turn- I’d love to hear from you! Do you utilize your natural talents in your life as well as your career? Is your pursuit of your dreams a struggle, a joy, a connection to your inner creator?  Share your opinion and experiences with me by making a comment.  Thanks, Lisa