Episode 288: Buying Into Yourself as a Working Actor

Free Month of The Weekly Adjustment I'm going to be talking about a real coaching tool called getting a buy in.  And that buy in is about really getting a buy in from yourself, something that you need in order to commit to yourself and motivate yourself.  So I'm going to be giving you some strategies to achieve buy-in from yourself and then tell you why I'm teaching this very valuable lesson. The first thing when you're trying to get a buy-in from yourself, you're trying to get yourself motivated, you're trying to get yourself committed to this thing of becoming an actor, is you want to clarify your visions and your goal.  What that means is that you want to define clear objectives. Meaning, and if you've ever done any method acting, you want to find out, what do you want?  What does that character want, but what do you want?  You want to ensure that you have a clear understanding of what you want to achieve, and this is the biggie, and why it matters.  Why it matters.  Jen Sincero talks a lot about doing something because your life depends on it. But this is the thing, as she says, Your life does depend on it.  This is what you want. Let's get clear on it.  I also encourage you, after you have written down what your vision and your goals are, or your goal is that I want you to visualize that success.  Even if you just write it down in a paragraph form, you're already a step closer to what you want to buy into. Picture what success looks like, and this is the biggie, and how it will feel.  How it will feel. How will it feel when you achieve that award? How will it feel when you get what you want?  Visualize what that would look like.  The second thing I want you to do is I want you to assess the benefits, but also the challenges. I want you to list your benefits and all of this you can do by just writing down.  You can listen to this podcast all the way through.  Then you can pause and then listen. Listen to it again, but this time with pen and paper and pause when you want to write stuff down. Assess the benefits and the challenges. So you're going to list the benefits. Write down the positive outcomes that you expect if you buy in, if you say, “Hey, I am 1000 percent into this pursuit of becoming an actor,” what would the positive outcomes be?  And then I want you to identify the potential challenges. And that means you're acknowledging the obstacles and you're going to start considering how you're going to overcome them and where you may need to get help to overcome them. The third thing is I want you to align with your values and your interests.  Now, what does that mean? Your values are what means a lot to you. Is it the arts? Is it self expression? One of my values is always showing myself I can do it. It's not about showing other people, it’s for me. My biggest value is proving to myself that I can do it.  So you want to align your values and your interests. interests. So you want to take a moment to really reflect on your personal values, meaning you want to ensure that the goal that you want to be doing aligns with who you are and the interests you have. So if I'm challenging myself as a coach which I actually did when I started this podcast 180 episodes ago. Actually, I think it might even be 190 by this point. I challenged myself to do something every week that I may or may not feel like I'm doing.  It was in the interest that I obviously have in coaching, but it also was the value of not proving to all of you that I could do it, but proving to myself that I could do it. The other thing that you want to do around aligning your values and interests is finding personal value.  Connecting your goal to something that is personally meaningful to you.  I talk about how my trigger words a lot in my coaching and that weekly coaching group I was just telling you about. And my old trigger words are weak, stupid, incapable.  So when I am aligning with my personal meaning, or I'm trying to find a personal meaning, that personal meaning will always be something that goes against those words. That practices contrary action to the words of weak, stupid, and incapable.  It makes me strong, smart, intelligent, and, as I always like to tell myself, I am the most capable person I know.  Number four, educate yourself. Educate yourself. Gather information, research, and learn more about the goal to build confidence. Now here I can help you. If you are trying to figure out the business of becoming an actor, please let me know. Shoot me an email, [email protected] so that you can get in touch with me.  And we can talk about this because the business does not have to be complicated. Also, and I love this, seek inspiration, look for case studies, success stories or mentors that have achieved similar goals.  Another thing that I think is really important is if you are a movie buff, watch favorite movies, watch movies that inspire you, performances that inspire you. Inspire you to become the best actor that you can be the best business person for your acting career that you can be. And find those inspirational stories that I talk about in the core work to pick you up and help inspire you when you most don't feel like doing what needs to be done.  Number five, set achievable milestones, which means set achievable goals, mini goals. Break it down. I'm a big one on baby stepping. Love the baby stepping and love the phrase anyone can eat an elephant one bite at a time.  So you want to break it down.  You want to divide the project into smaller manageable tasks. Because the fact of the matter is that if you don't know what the next step is, the next right step or the next manageable step or the next bite of the elephant is, you're probably not going to get it done. Also, celebrate progress, recognize and reward yourself for completing the milestones.  Whenever I do a good workout, I really praise myself for the effort that I put into it. That's so much better than beating yourself up.  Again, the core work and everything I talk about is about getting you to work for you instead of against you. So number six is developing a support system. So important. We need people who are trying to recover their selves, what they really were meant to be on this earth and really saying enough is enough of the fear and going for it. You need other people like that in your life who encourage you instead of discourage you, because you want to be seeking encouragement.  You want to share your goals with supportive friends, or supportive family, or supportive colleagues. Find whether someone is supportive for you or not. And that's in good times and in bad.  Also, find accountability. One of the things I do with Acting Business Boot Camp is we have a weekly accountability group. What have you done the week before and what are you going to do the week going forth?  In those three pillars of a successful acting career, which are acting training, business steps, and accountability. And core work. So what did you do to become better at your craft this past week? And what did you, are you going to do this next coming week? Number seven, reflect on past successes.  In episode 102 of this podcast, I talk about what is your strength story, and I share one of my own.  If you want to understand what really finding your strength story is all about, listen to that podcast episode, and we'll put a link in the show notes so you can just click on it. It's one of my favorite episodes, and also you get a real good idea of where I was at how far I've come.  You want to recall achievements, reflect on past successes to build confidence in your ability to succeed again.  You also want to analyze strategies. You want to consider what strategies worked in the past. What has worked for your acting career in the past and how can you apply them now.  Number eight, you want to create a positive mindset.  And that is why at the beginning of this podcast, I offered you that free month of coaching for the weekly adjustment, because that is It's all about creating a positive mindset. We do talk about practicing self affirmations and using affirmations to boost your confidence.  I talk about how you can act your way into right thinking and think your way into right acting.  You also want to be learning, and we talk about this in that weekly class, about managing negative thoughts, address and reframe any self doubt, or negative thinking. Number nine, oh boy, if you're a working actor, you know this one. Plan for flexibility. Be adaptable. Another one I love is to remain teachable.  Be prepared to adjust your plans as needed. Remember when you're about to go out to dinner and maybe a movie or a show with a friend and then that audition comes in? Oh yeah, you gotta learn how to pivot.  Always stay open to learning. View challenges and opportunities to learn and grow.  It's not that bad things happen. It's that lessons come up for us to learn and grow. So that we can truly do what we are capable of doing and have the skills to do that when called upon. Again, remember, remain teachable intellectually and emotionally.  And finally, our last action to get a buy in from ourself is to commit to action. Set a start date. Decide when you will begin and commit to it.  And I always love when I'm able to do it the moment I set the plan or the goal in motion. Take that first step. Start with a small action. To bring about momentum, start with something small, a tiny sampling, a little bonbon of the elephant.  Now, this is the thing, by systematically going through each of these 10 steps in this very special podcast lesson, you really can cultivate a strong internal commitment to your goals and ensure sustained motivation and effort. And if you need help with this, please, I beg of you, I am totally willing to help. Let me see how I can help you.  And I can do that. I can start to do that with you in that free month, an entire free month. That's four hours of coaching, four hours of coaching in the wonderful weekly adjustment class.