Wishes vs. Goals

Perhaps it doesn't come as a surprise to my fair readers that I spend a good deal of my time counseling others through their career (and personal) forests. Well, today was no different.

My dear friend, who for the purposes of this blogpost shall be named Sela, called me today - despondent about her job. She is not an actor (really? Someone who isn't an actor? I know, it's strange...) but her job is similar in one particular way: she has to market her product to others and get them to part with their hard-earned cash. That's her job. And you know what? She's pretty good at it. But she *feels* unsure of herself at every turn and constantly worries about getting a bad review or getting let go. So even when she does well, she has in effect failed on a personal level because she didn't enjoy the ride. She was stressing all the way through.

So I'm going to tell you what I told her: the journey *is* the destination. It can be so hard to accept this for us actors, thinking that success is down the road months or even years. "I'll be happy when I book a lead role in a studio feature." "I'll be happy when I'm a series regular on network television." "I'll be happy when..."

Now, I'm not saying I don't want those things or that you shouldn't. What I'm saying is that those are the motivators, NOT THE GOALS. (I call them the wishes.)

The GOALS, on the other hand, are manageable, doable actions:
Send 10 postcards to casting directors this week.
Make two coffee dates.
Write thank-you notes to people who spoke at The Actors Network last week.
Spend 4 hours this week writing my web series.
Warm up my voice every day.

At the end of a week, when I can check off these kinds of things from my list, I know I've done my best to move my career forward. When I daydream, I'm still thinking about that amazing, hilarious, well-written sitcom I'm going to star in, but when it's time to get down to business, I'm focused on things I have control over. That control comes from DOABLE actions, and it releases me from the anxiety that can creep up so easily in a career with no set path and no guarantees.