Tuesday, July 17, 2012

FOMO - Fear of Missing Out

Last year while I was doing a retreat in Hawaii, one of my fellow participants used the term FOMO - fear of missing out. This really resonated with me. So many times I am trying to do it all, signing up for 27 different activities, saying yes to everything... and then at the end of the year, wondering what I truly accomplished for all my busyness. Finally I have realized that the most important thing is for me to bring my creative ideas and projects to fruition. And that means saying NO to a lot of other things.

So I started unsubscribing from email lists. The hardest one to let go of was actually the entertainment news source "The Wrap." I love being in the know about what is going on in the entertainment industry but I finally realized that getting multiple emails a day about last night's tv ratings, or which star is leaving WME for CAA, or who just got cast in the latest summer blockbuster... was not really serving me. I have always been schooled in the notion that actors should not be clueless about what is going on in the industry, and I agree with that, but as a creative person, I can't be bombarded with constant information about what other people are doing. I need to center myself and focus. What am I bringing into the world?

Recently I read that John Mayer deleted his Twitter account because he realized he was starting to only think of individual lines for songs instead of entire verses. That's a great personal insight. All the meditation and Radical Aliveness/Core Energetics practices I do are to ground myself and deepen my attention. Why throw that away every time I check my email?


It's the Fear of Missing Out that creeps in: I will miss something important! I will look stupid (or clueless, or self-centered, etc.) in a conversation! There will be a screening or event I don't get to attend!



But meanwhile, here I am, writing. I've written 30 songs, some of which will end up on my upcoming album. I've looked at all my feature film scripts and chosen one that I'll be moving forward on later in the year. I've been singing, practicing piano and cello, getting ready for my gigs

So I might be missing out on something, but before I was missing out on myself.
So, you've been in LA for a year or more - you found a place to live, you bought a car and you even signed with an agent.

Now what?

This blog is about taking your career to the next level - thinking big, thinking outside the box and working collaboratively to achieve success. Success in LA.