A Good Week

I wrote on my Facebook profile yesterday that I was prepping for auditions and performances this week. I have two indie film auditions this week and I am performing in two short play reading programs - check my Facebook fan page for details on that. In addition, I booked my photo shoot with, in my and others' opinion, the best photographer in town, Dana Patrick, I signed up for CD workshops, and I mailed postcards to my episodic and feature film target CDs, and sent congratulations cards to some of my favorite film producers. A damn fine and productive week thus far.

When I am not auditioning, I am hustling to do my marketing and cultivating relationships, or as Dallas Travers says, I'm sending out my "ships". I'm planting the seeds and I am not focused on when the harvest will come in but how I might be able to learn from and help the individuals I am cultivating relationships with.

I also had an opportunity to look at some Facebook friends' updates. I saw a lot of folks saying they nailed their auditions. I am always happy to hear when my actor friends feel they nailed their auditions and share it - we, as actors, have to be our own cheerleaders - it is something we have to do to keep sane. I know people say that they feel like they are bragging when they toot their own horn. No, No, No. You are celebrating yourself when you toot your own horn -- I think we should toot our own horns more often. Nurturing ourselves is key.

My acting coach and I have had several conversations about "being seduced by experiences". Huh, you ask? Being seduced by the experience, for me, is making the experience more important than it really is. In my acting, there are remnants of that from time to time. I make a memory so important that I disengage with my partner to relive the memory. Also, seduced by experience means making results bigger than the process. I know it has been quite a shift for me to take my focus off of the results and place it on the process. Doing so helps me to not be overly excited or disappointed in an experience, but instead I say to myself "ok, I am experiencing this right now" and I move on to the next experience. I'm not saying I discount my experience, I say that I look at the experience objectively and don't judge it. We get into trouble when we start judging. I try not to judge my audition experiences - I don't ask "did I do well?" or "did I suck?" but "hmm...that's how I did...what did I learn...on to my next experience". I'm not saying I don't stress - I have my "actor mind taffy" time, I try to get it out of my system, and move on. That deserves repeating, yes I MOVE ON. It even felt good to say it as I wrote it.


The focus on the journey has really given me peace of mind.