SO, NOW WHAT?

                                                                       

Okay. The networks have picked up their shows. Many of you are disappointed or just didn't have a great pilot season. Remember why you're in this business, actors. You love doing what you're doing. Hold onto that. "THE BURNING DESIRE TO BE OR DO SOMETHING GIVES US STAYING POWER - A REASON TO GET UP EVERY MORNING OR TO PICK OURSELVES UP AND START IN AGAIN AFTER A DISAPPOINTMENT." - Marsha Sinetar, author

BE YOURSELF

Please, please, please stop COMPARING yourself to other people. There is only one unique YOU! "ALWAYS BE A FIRST-RATE VERSION OF YOURSELF, INSTEAD OF
A SECOND-RATE VERSION OF SOMEBODY ELSE." 
- Judy Garland                                                            

RESENTMENT

Some of you actors aren't happy with pilot season. Feelings of "why her and not me?", "it's just not fair!", envy, anger, despair, etc. are popping up. Try to keep in mind that filling yourself with such thoughts and feelings are EXTREMELY TOXIC! I came across this quote and thought it was pure genius:
RESENTMENT IS LIKE TAKING POISON AND WAITING FOR THE OTHER PERSON TO DIE." 
-Malachy McCourt, Author
                                                                         

Rather profound, don't you think?

DISAPPOINTMENT

Notes author Marsha Sinetar tells us that a "burning desire to be or do something gives us staying power - a reason to get up every morning or to pick ourselves up and start in again after a disappontment." 

STRESS

 This arrived in my in-box. I don't know who said it but I thought I'd pass it on to you.

While leading a stress management seminar, the leader confidently walked around the room holding a glass of water. Everyone knew she was going to ask the ultimate question, 'half empty or half full?'.... She fooled them all...."How heavy is this glass of water?" she inquired with a full smile and a twinkle in her eye.
Answers shouted out ranged from 8 oz. to 20 oz.

She replied, "The absolute weight doesn't matter. It depends on HOW LONG I HOLD IT. If I hold it for a  minute, that's not a problem. If I hold it for an hour, I'll have an ache in my right arm. If I hold it for a day, you'll have to call an ambulance. In each case, it's the same weight, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it becomes. And that's the way it is with stress. If we carry our burdens all the time, sooner or later, as the burden becomes increasingly heavy, we won't be able to carry on."

"As with the glass of water, you have to put it down for a while and rest before holding it again. When we're refreshed, we can carry on with the burden - holding stress longer and better each time practiced.

So, as early in the evening as you can, put all your burdens down. Don't carry them through the evening and into the night.... Pick them up tomorrow."

Pretty good advice, don't you think?

PERSPECTIVE

                                                                 

     Are you frustrated, tired, annoyed, exhausted, peaceful, happy? etc. etc. The good news is that YOU GET TO DECIDE how you want to perceive the events in your life. If things are challenging right now, are you going to get in bed with a quart of ice cream and pull the covers up over your head? Or are you going to take a couple of deep breaths, fling off the covers, pull your shoulders back and march onward? Winston Churchill may have said it best when he reminds us, "THE PESSIMIST SEES DIFFICULTY IN EVERY OPPORTUNITY. THE OPTIMIST SEES OPPORTUNITY IN EVERY DIFFICULTY." So who do you want to be?                    

                                                                                                           

KEEP PLUGGING AWAY!!!

                                                                       
The brilliant playwright Samuel Beckett reminds us to, "Try again. Fail again. Fail better." It's really just about RECOVERING FASTER. How about looking at it this way? "Success is the ability to go from one failure to another WITH NO LOSS OF ENTHUSIASM." - Winston Churchill
Isn't that an inspiring concept? So enthuse up everyone and keep on going!!!

BE COURAGEOUS!!

                                                                                                                                             
Clients will tell me that they are afraid of making that call, sending that e-mail, writing that screenplay because they are scared of REJECTION. Please consider and understand that fear is a natural part of your process. You just don't want to get stuck there. So take ACTION and do what you need to do since, "Courage is not the absence of fear, but RATHER THE JUDGMENT THAT SOMETHING ELSE IS MORE IMPORTANT THAN FEAR." - Ambrose Redmoon, writer

BE YOUR UNIQUE, MAGNIFICENT SELF!!!

                                                                         

I'm hearing some actor clients carry on and on about wanting to be WHO the casting director, producer, director wants you to be. HUH? Give it up, guys! First of all, how can you possibly know? Not to mention that second-guessing them is going to do you absolutely NO GOOD! No good at all! Why? Because you can't know. No you can't!! Really! There are no crystal balls with magic anwers. So just be YOU - Your beautiful, wonderful, talented self. Trust that self. Just dare to be who you are. Make the audition work for YOU!!! Go in and have fun!

THE AUDITION ROOM

                                                                 
When I start working with actor clients, I hear about your auditioning fears, anxieties, shakes, quakes and nausea. Please know this: THEY - the ones watching you in the big, bad, scary room - WANT YOU TO DO WELL! Yes they do! Really! I guarantee it! They have absolutely NO interest in falling on the floor laughing if you blow it. In particular, the Casting Director wants you to be fabulous. She doesn't want to receive death stares from the producers when no one fills the bill. She doesn't want to have to find more actors when she thought the ones she found were terrific to begin with. She doesn't want to look bad. Believe in yourself. Believe that ONLY YOU have what they are looking for. YOU are the answer. They need you. Oh yes they do! Believe it! Know it! Take it to the bank!

So now that you know that they want you to succeed, just forget about them. Have fun for YOU!!!! PLAY!!! Be your confident self and HAVE FUN IN THE ROOM!!! Yes, just be yourself. Look, you're getting an opportunity to do what you love - act! So enjoy the hell out of it. Love the process. BE FULLY PRESENT, HAVE FUN, REALLY LISTEN and LET GO!!! YOU CAN DO IT!!!! YES YOU CAN!!!

TODAY

In the preface of her extraordinary memoir, Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor learned "that you cannot value dreams according to the odds of their coming true. Their real value is in stirring within us the will to aspire. That will, wherever it finally leads, does at least move your forward. And after a time you may recognize that the proper measure of success is not how much you've closed the distance to some far-off goal but the quality of what you've done today."

Something to chew on. So what can you do today to move you towards your dream? Take a small step in the direction you want to go. Then you will have been successful today!

SAILING

Nice thought for 2013: 'WE ARE ALL INVENTORS, EACH SAILING OUT ON A VOYAGE OF DISCOVERY, GUIDED EACH BY A PRIVATE CHART, OF WHICH THERE IS NO DUPLICATE. THE WORLD IS ALL GATES, ALL OPPORTUNITIES." 
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

TRAILBLAZER

                                                                 
I think what Emerson said is rather profound. Something to chew on over this Labor Day weekend:

"Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

SHINE

                                                                           
Meditate.
Live purely.
Be quiet.
Do your work with mastery.
Like the moon, come out from behind the clouds!
Shine.

OVERCOMING OBSTACLES

This quote of Michael Jordan's may say it best: "Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it." 

                                                                                                                                                             

A GREAT EXERCISE

When you're feeling down, sluggish, apathetic, discouraged or anything else that's not a wonderful feeling, here's something you can do (courtesy Abraham-Hicks). They call it "mining the moment." Look for something that feels good.  Or appreciate or savor something in the moment. Take in some beauty or joy right here, right now. Just remember FAST - Feel good, Appreciate, Savor, Take in. You'll  be amazed by how quickly you can turn around the blahs!

BELIEF

" Man often becomes what he believes himself to be. If I keep on saying to myself that I cannot do a certain thing, it is possible that I may end up really becoming incapable of doing it. On the contrary, if I have the belief that I can do it, I shall surely acquire the capacity to do it even if I may not have it at the beginning."
-Mahatma Gandhi

                                                                       

MOVING FORWARD

                                                                           
If you know what you want, and most of you do, then you need to go for it. And you know what that means for YOU. After all, "there is no passion to be found playing small, in settling for a life that is less than the one you are capable of living." - Nelson Mandela
How about doing one small thing every day that takes you in the direction of where you want to go.

A NEW DAY

                                                               
The day is done. No matter what happened you can start anew tomorrow:
"Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could; some blunders and absurdities have
crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; you shall begin it serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense." 
-  Ralph Waldo Emerson

WATCHING

                               
Watch your thoughts; they become words.
Watch your words; they become actions.
Watch your actions; they become habits.
Watch your habits; they become character.
Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Frank Outlaw

                                           

The Climb

                                                                               

" Live your life each day as you would climb a mountain. An occasional glance toward the summit keeps the goal in mind, but many beautiful scenes are to be observed from each new vantage point. Climb slowly, steadily, enjoying each passing moment; and the view from the summit will serve as a fitting climax for the journey."  Harold V. Melchert

MAGIC

"And above all, watch with glittering eyes the whole world around you because the greatest secrets are always hidden in the most unlikely places. Those who don't believe in magic will never find it." - Roald Dahl

ABC'S

                                                                              
"SUCCESS IS THAT OLD ABC - ABILITY, BREAKS, AND COURAGE." - Charles Luckman

Awwww  shucks! Maybe I really am King of the Forest!

How about if every day (well, maybe not weekends) you do one small courageous act. Do you want to write?- then write something, anything! If you're an actor, are you working on your craft every day? Who do you need to contact? Are you watching your automatic negative thoughts? Are you believing them?  You know what a small piece of courage looks like for  you -- OK?

ENTHUSIASM!!!

"Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm." - Winston Churchill

                                                                             

HORSE SENSE

"Flaming enthusiasm, backed up by horse sense and persistence, is the quality that most frequently makes for success." - Dale Carnegie                                                                          

PATIENCE

                                                                     

When you're planting a garden, you don't dig it up after one week to check things out and bemoan the lack of progress. You have to give it time, and water and love and perhaps most of all, patience. The same with your career. What steps you do you need to take? E-mails? Calls? Marketing strategy? Then one step at a time. "Don't judge each day by the harvest you reap but by the seeds that you plant." - Robert Louis Stevenson

OBSTACLES

Hey folks - Please keep this in mind when you wake up feeling blue: "Obstacles cannot crush me. Every obstacle yields to STERN RESOLVE. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind." - Leonardo Da Vinci

Attitude is Everything!

Did you have a disappointing pilot season? If so, are you pulling the covers up over your head, or are you committed to moving forward? Do you have a plan, specific goals, are you taking action? Remember, attitude is everything! "Some people dream of success.... while others wake up and work hard at it." - Author Unknown

MOVING FORWARD

"Difficulties are meant to rouse, not discourage. The human spirit is to grow strong by conflict."- William Ellery Channing

RAINBOWS

Dolly Parton reminds us that "if you want the rainbow, you gotta put up with the rain."

CHALLENGES

"Challenges make you discover things about yourself that you never really knew. They're what make the instrument stretch - what makes you go beyond the norm." - Cicely Tyson

                                                      

REACT VS. RESPOND

When you react, you're doing so in a knee-jerk, automatic way. When you respond, you step back, take a breath and DECIDE how you want to proceed.
"When you live in reaction, you give your power away. Then you get to experience what you gave your power to." - N. Smith
Ponder this as you thoughtfully move through pilot season.
                                                      

DESIRE

Do you know what you want? See it, feel it, imagine it, visualize it in exquisite detail. Know it beyond a shadow of a doubt. "Desire is the starting point of all achievement, not a hope, not a wish, but a keen pulsating desire which transcends everything. - Napoleon Hill

PAIN

"When the deepest pain in you becomes something that helps you to know yourself, your truth, your boundaries, creativity, wisdom and dreams - then that pain can become your greatest friend and teacher, so that when it shows up it reminds you of who you are, rather than who you are not. It can either take you further away into seeking an external solution because you judge it or feel like a victim to it, or it can take you into an internal one because you are giving yourself the gift of your awareness which can transform anything - Unknown

HAPPY 2012!!!

I wish everyone a happy, healthy, loving, successful New Year! Here's a thought for 2012:
"You have to set goals that are almost out of reach. If you set a goal that is attainable without mch work or thought, you are stuck with something below your true talent and potential." - Steve Garvey

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

                                              
I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a wonderful holiday season. You're heard of "five golden rings?" Here's 24 golden hours:

"Every day you are handed 24 golden hours. They are one of the few things in this world that you get free of charge. If you had all the money in the world, you couldn't buy an extra hour. What will you do with this priceless treasure?" - Unknown

MISTAKES

Some people cannot resist the urge to beat themselves up when a mistake has been made. Isn't that just part of being human? Think about this instead: "WHEN YOU MAKE A MISTAKE, DON'T LOOK BACK AT IT LONG. TAKE THE REASON OF THE THING INTO YOUR MIND, AND THEN LOOK FORWARD. MISTAKES ARE LESSONS OF WISDOM. THE PAST CANNOT BE CHANGED. THE FUTURE IS YET IN YOUR POWER." - Phyllis Bottome

ROLL THE DICE

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Here's a thought to take with you into the holiday season:
"NEVER LET THE ODDS KEEP YOU FROM PURSUING WHAT YOU KNOW IN YOUR HEART YOU WERE MEANT TO DO."
- Satchel Paige

TODAY

You know what you want. You can easily delineate the problems and challenges in getting what you want. You bemoan your painful past and your murky future. But what about now? What about today? What about digging deep and using all your talents, skills, strength and courage to move forward, day by day - one step at a time. The great and wise Ralph Waldo Emerson reminds us that, " WHAT LIES BEHIND US AND WHAT LIES BEFORE US ARE TINY MATTERS COMPARED TO WHAT LIES WITHIN US."

CHANGE

"WHEN WE ARE NO LONGER ABLE TO CHANGE A SITUATION, WE ARE CHALLENGED TO CHANGE OURSELVES." - Victor Frankl
So what are you needing to change? Your thoughts, your beliefs, your attitude? Do you need to let go of old self-defeating behaviors, or create new empowering habits? If you really want what you want, then do what you have to do!

SUCCESS

"SUCCESS IS NOT FINAL, FAILURE IS NOT FATAL: IT IS THE COURAGE TO CONTINUE THAT COUNTS."
- Winston Churchill

So take a deep breath of courage and continue on!

A THOUGHT

"Happiness is not a matter of intensity but of balance, order, rhythm and harmony."
- Thomas Merton

TIME

Perhaps you've seen this. But it bears repeating:
"Your time is limited, don't waste it living someone else's life. Don't be trapped by dogma, which is living the result of other people's thinking. Don't let the noise of other's opinion drown your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition, they somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary." Steve Jobs

Food For Thought

I think there is so much wisdom in the following quote by Norman Vincent Peale. Really chew on this one!
"We've all heard that we have to learn from our mistakes, but I think it's more important to learn from successes. If you learn only from your mistakes, you are inclined to learn only errors."

STAY IN THE GAME!

"MANY OF LIFE'S FAILURES ARE PEOPLE WHO DID NOT REALIZE HOW CLOSE THEY WERE TO SUCCESS WHEN THEY GAVE UP." - Thomas A. Edison

KEEP GOING!

"CHARACTER CONSISTS OF WHAT YOU DO ON THE THIRD AND FOURTH TRIES." - James Michener

IMAGINE

We don't have to be the products of our past - no matter how painful. We can learn from it, we can choose to do things differently, we can make different decisions. You are artists, you are creators. Therefore, "LIVE OUT OF YUR IMAGINATION, NOT YOUR HISTORY." - Steven Covey

SURPRISE YOURSELF

I hear so much fear out there. Afraid to make that phone call, send that e-mail, take that workshop, write that scene. Try to remember that you're no worse off after having done the dreaded task, than if you had done nothing at all. Anytime you do something you don't want to do, or are afraid of doing, you become empowered. And living and working from your place of power, can only benefit you. Henry Ford said that "one of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do." So what are you afraid of? You can start small, that's okay. Just do it! Surprise and delight yourself!

CHEW ON THIS

I just came across two incredible quotes that feel both timely and powerful. Thomas Jefferson said, " Nothing can stop the man with the right mental attitude from achieving his goal. Nothing on earth can help the man with the wrong mental attitude."
We keep seeing it everywhere. If you want to change your life, you've got to change your mind.

And this one really moved me:
Never tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon." - Unknown
So think big thoughts, always be aware of what you're telling yourself, and take one small step at a time as you walk towards your dream.

                                                       

COURAGE

A client was just telling me that she's afraid of making that call, or sending that e-mail because she's scared of rejection. Consider fear a natural part of your process, just don't get stuck there. Take action and do what you need to do, since "Courage is not the absence of fear, but rather the judgment that something else is more important than fear." - Ambrose Redmoon, writer

COMMITMENT

Are you truly committed to your goal? Is it an INTENTION rather than a want or desire? Are you all in? And when the going gets rough, do you slink away into the night and pull the covers over your head, or do you double down and recommit? Someone once said, " aging puts wrinkles on the body. Quitting puts wrinkles on the soul."

IT'S AN INSIDE JOB!

The great Western disease is, 'I'll be happy when...When I get the money. When I get a BMW. When I get this job.' Well, the reality is, you never get to when. The only way to find happiness is to understand that happiness is not out there. It's in here. And happiness is not next week. It's now. - Marshall Goldsmith

POWER!

In 1597 Sir Francis Bacon said that "knowledge is power," and yes, it still is! You will find it enormously helpful to know how you work and what makes you tick. When (and to whom) do you give away your power? What do you need to become the best you? What are you telling yourself as you move through your day? Who do you want to be as you pursue your dreams and goals? Become acutely aware of your thoughts, feelings and actions. Keep in mind that, "KNOWLEDGE OF ANY KIND...BRINGS ABOUT A CHANGE IN AWARENESS FROM WHERE IT IS POSSIBLE TO CREATE NEW REALITIES." - Deepak Chopra

MOVING FORWARD

Hope everyone had a great Fourth of July! "Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending."-Maria Robinson
So, what do you want to do differently? How are you going to change your approach to whatever it is you hope to achieve? Have a strong picture in your mind of your desired OUTCOME. The past is past. So how about creating a new beginning TODAY!

GAME ON!

An actor client is taking off like gangbusters. He said he really gets that, "LIFE'S A GAME - IT'S ALL HOW YOU PLAY IT!"  So go on! Get in the game! Play hard and play smart!   

             

REGRET OR REJOICE

We've been talking about perspective, and I think it's so vital to continually realize that you get to choose how you perceive the events in your life. An Unknown Author develops this idea with "For everything you have missed, you have gained something else; And for everything you gain, you lose something else. It is about your outlook towards life; you can either regret or rejoice."

PERSPECTIVE

You get to decide how you want to perceive the events in your life. I love what Winston Churchill says and I think it's worth chewing on: "THE PESSIMIST SEES DIFFICULTY IN EVERY OPPORTUNITY. THE OPTIMIST SEES OPPORTUNITY IN EVERY DIFFICULTY." Who do you want to be?

OPRAH!

What an incredible humanitarian, communicator, and Renaissance Woman. I came across this Oprah quote which has tremendous wisdom in its brevity: "The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate." So what do you need to acknowledge about yourself, your life? Nothing is too small, you know. Give yourself a pat on the back every once in awhile.

OTHER WAYS

                                                        
It's really easy to get in our heads that there is only ONE WAY to get from Point A to Point B. How about being open to exploring various options and stretching your mind, yourself, your very being to see other ways, other paths, other roads? After all, "minds are like parachutes; they work best when open." - Lord Thomas Dewar

BRANCHING OUT

We've been talking about taking risks; going beyond your comfort zone, pushing yourself to do what needs to be done, trusting your intuition and taking chances. Author Frank Scully put it in such a colorful (and nourishing) way when he said, "Why not go out on a limb? Isn't there where the fruit is?" (Chew on that for awhile and forgive me for the irresistible puns!)                                                               

                             

RISK

One way to free yourself from feeling stuck in both your behavior and thinking is daring to risk. You can break through old comfort zones and walls as you become more empowered. "To try is to risk failure... the greatest hazard of life is to risk nothing." - Leo Buscaglia
Remember, "only those who risk going too far can know how far they can go." - Unknown Source

                                                      

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

LIFE IS NOT ABOUT WAITING FOR THE STORMS TO PASS. IT'S ABOUT LEARNING TO DANCE IN THE RAIN.
Vivian Greene

IMAGINE!

Albert Einstein says that "your imagination is your preview to life's coming attractions." A challenge seems to be that if we really want that new shiny new car, that great relationship, lotsa money in the bank, etc., and we don't have it, we invariably focus on what's missing in our lives. We need to learn to focus our imaginations on what it is we do want - not what's lacking. An unknown source may say it best with "change is created by those whose imaginations are BIGGER than their  circumstances." So imagine it, see it, feel it, know it! Have fun with this!

ALL ABOARD!

President Obama told the nation that capturing bin Laden was more evidence that Americans "can do whatever we set our minds to." That sort of belief in ourselves leads us to go after our dreams. But the fact is, often, our minds are divided, conflicted, with unconscious negative thoughts sabotaging us. The key to success is bringing those self-sabotaging thoughts to the surface, so they can be examined with a critical eye and, when appropriate, discarded and replaced with empowering thoughts. After all, if we're going to put our minds to accomplishing some major undertaking, why not have our ENTIRE minds on board?

SLOTHDOM?

Clients have been beating themselves up telling me how
 LAZY they are and that's why they're not a "success." I hate that word. I see you guys doing lots, rushing around, taking classes, workshops, mailings, calls, etc. etc. If there's something more to do, then do it. And please stop calling yourself LAZY! Terrible message!! If you're pretty much working at capacity, how 'bout this instead:
"Laziness is nothing more than the habit of resting before you get tired." -
Jules Renard, Author

RESENTMENT

Some of you aren't thrilled with pilot season. Feelings of 'why him and not me," "it's just not fair," envy, etc. are popping up.  Try to keep in mind that filling yourself with such thoughts and feelings are extremely toxic.

I came across this quote and thought it was genius:
"RESENTMENT IS LIKE TAKING POISON AND WAITING
FOR THE OTHER PERSON TO DIE." - Malachy McCourt, Author

Rather profound, don't you think?