A time to reflect

With the recent knowledge of a wonderful acting friend passing away, I wanted to dedicate this post to Amanda, a truly beautiful, talented and giving individual who will always have a piece of my heart.

There’s so much beauty in the world that I would hate for a second to miss it. And the great thing about this friend was that she saw that beauty and she shared that beauty constantly with those around her. I am so so grateful she was a part of my life. I am so thankful I met her.

And I guess our challenge as actors is to keep our chins up high and see that beauty and celebrate the small wins as often as possible so we don’t miss them, or miss out on life in general.

Just this month, a lovely friend of mine has been enjoying working on a big television show and in an earnest moment they turned to me and asked ‘what next?‘. What they meant was, what happens after this TV show is over. What happens if they don’t get called in for another role? What if this is it, the biggest thing they’ll ever do? What if, what if, what if.

Well my friends, if we don’t spend all our time worrying about “that” possibility, and instead focus on how wonderful the role is that we have right now, then perhaps “that” won’t even happen. Perhaps there will continue to be a steady stream of exciting auditions, paid jobs, and more opportunities coming our way than we can poke a stick at.

See worry doesn’t fill the void of not knowing what is next. Worry just feeds fear. Worry means we are sending out signals to the world that say ‘don’t give me more of the good stuff, no. Just give me more of this stuff I’m worrying about‘. And we don’t want that. When instead, you are sitting there thinking about how great this acting is that you’re doing, you are telling the universe you LOVE YOUR LIFE and you WANT MORE OF JUST THE SAME.

Yes, there are going to be dry patches and times when we don’t have much going on. There are going to be weeks when we are pulling our hair out, and months where we are going to be frantic with excitement and trepidation about the next job. But isn’t that the whole reason we enrolled into this crazy acting business? Didn’t we turn up to acting school so we could live this wonderful life where every single day is different from the next.

Our one and only job is to turn up to the audition, reading or job and be the best actor we possibly can be. Bryan Cranston summed it up perfectly in this video. I actually think it’s the single best acting video I have ever seen…all 1.23 seconds of it.

I want to remember the things I need to spend more time doing….

More time reading books and opening my heart to strangers and less time sweating the small stuff.
More time smiling and sharing and less time fussing with my hair that might be out of place.
More time laughing when I’ve done something silly and less time fretting about looking dumb. 
More time enjoying ice-cream and less time worrying about wrinkling my clothes.
More time smelling flowers and less time worrying about my next audition.
Less time on Twitter and Facebook and more time looking at the sky and seeing the beauty.
Less time pleasing people and more time just loving them.
Less time trying to like myself more and more time just being.
Less time fretting and more time hugging.

I know that as winter hits and the days get shorter, we are more inclined to hibernate and crawl away into our little cocoons. We are more likely to fret, more likely to worry, more likely to fuss. But just for today, just at this moment, take stock of how much you’ve achieved already this year. This is you, out there being an actor in every job, every audition, every opportunity. You are doing it.

Worry more about how you are going to fit in any time to read B.A.B.E. when you’re busy learning lines for that next television role! Now that’s a good problem to have 🙂

***********
Photo credit: *Zephyrance – don’t wake me up. / Foter.com / CC BY-ND
Photo credit: KlaireLee / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-ND