January Career Goals Update

One way to help you stay on top of your resolutions is to have people to keep you accountable.  So, you guys are now my accountability team.  At the end of each month we are going to revisit my career goals I set this New Year's and see how I am doing.

CAREER GOALS

Goal: Attend class unless working an acting gig or sick
Actual: I skipped one Thursday class to go to Disneyland with my sister.  My excuse (I know, excuses are a terrible, terrible thing but ...) I had attended 5 classes already that week and needed a mental health day.

Goal: Work on scenes from plays I can put up.
Actual: I have worked on two new scenes already this year, but neither come from a play I would actually put up.  I am starting a new scene next week that has a possibility of being a cool play to do.

Goal: Read two plays a month.
Actual: I read "A Few Good Men," "Play It Again, Sam," and "Vanities."

Goal: Find and attend a good on-camera class to supplement my acting classes.
Actual: Started a commercial class with Chris Game.

Goal: Complete editing on both my films before the PWFF early bird deadline.
Actual: The five minute one has a rough cut, but b-roll footage is needed to round it out.  The 20-minute one is being worked on by Ricardo.

Goal: Write and produce two more shorts this year.
Actual: Let's finish these other two first.

Goal: Continue to help at the agency once a week.
Actual: I've been helping out at my agency and at some casting offices.  On weeks I couldn't go in on my normal day, I would try to go in a different day.

Goal: Find three casting offices that I can help out at as a reader.
Actual: Worked as a reader at two offices already!  A feature office and an episodic!  I think I will try to add more to this goal.

Goal: Blog every Monday.
Actual: Blogged every week.  And I added a new blog: Being Crafty and Cultured in Los Angeles.  There you can see how I am doing on my personal goals.

How do You Keep Yourself Going?

People always say how difficult it is to be an actor because you hear "no" all the time.  This is actually  not true - most of the time you hear nothing at all.  The way most actors find out they were rejected is when they see another actor playing the role they auditioned for on TV.  Oh, awesome, that goofy bug-eyed girl got that commercial I went in for ... again.

But there is no way around it, being an actor is a life filled with rejection.  And I'm not going to lie: it is difficult and it will get to you.  The people who have longevity in this business are the ones who can take the rejection and keep moving forward.

When the rejection starts to get me feeling down, I look at the reasons I chose this career in the first place.  I love to act; I love the theater; I love performing; I love movies; I love plays.

My first step in fighting the rejection blues is by watching some of my favorite actors in their best performances.  I get the classics down and watch Casablanca, Breakfast at Tiffany's, Singing in the Rain - the movies that made me want to be an actor in the first place.

Another way for me to fight the blues is by wandering around in the play section of my favorite used bookstore, The Iliad.  I grab a couple well-loved, marked up, highlighted plays for a couple bucks and curl up in a dark corner somewhere to read.  One secret of mine: I always act out all the parts in my head while reading a play.

If I am not on an upswing yet, then I pour myself into being more productive.  I find new classes; go to workshops; find offices to intern at.  Suddenly, I am too busy to feel depressed over some lousy one line role or a cheesy car commercial I didn't book.

What do you do to keep yourself moving forward?