6. Worse Case Scenario Exercise.
If you were to do the one thing you knew you had to do to get where you wanted to go, what’s the worst thing that could happen? I mean the absolute worst thing?
Go ahead and think through the worse case scenario in detail. For example: Let’s say you get a great manager. Worse case scenario is you get sent out, you embarrass yourself in auditions, never book a job, get terrible feedback, are blacklisted from a casting office, get dropped by your rep, never work again, and then your entire career is over and you move to Siberia! Do you see the ridiculousness of that scenario? We laugh about the jump in logic from getting dropped by a rep to living in an inhospitable winter-land, but that’s where our fears often take us! We take so many extra steps away from reality to hold our dreams in fear instead of in possibility.
Now, shift your thinking away from the worst case. Why can’t you get a manager? Why can’t you book a job? Why can’t you be a lead on a show? You don’t have to be Meryl Streep. You’re a human being with a story to tell. You’re here.
Ask yourself, “What’s the worse thing that can happen if I do this?” Actually answer the question, and then do it anyway.
Put another way, ask yourself what’s the one thing today that if you weren’t scared of ________, you would make happen?
SPOILER ALERT: That blank isn’t real! It’s not the real story of what’s going on. You may believe the story, or you may have friends who support that story, because it’s comfortable to never have to test your assumptions. But there is no reason you can’t do the things you want to do.
7. Acting Is Not Near As Precious As We’ve Been Taught.
An actor I work with recently booked a role on a major TV series, and when she got to set, she had a realization: no one really knew what they were doing. Sure, there was a plan for the day, a schedule, a shot list, producers, a director, a call-sheet, a great craft services table (!) ”“ but at the core of it all, everyone was just trying to figure it all out as it was happening.
Acting isn’t precious. It’s about problem solving. It’s about getting truthful. It’s about putting out fires.
It’s about working within a budget and doing the best we can against all obstacles.
It’s not as much “craft” as it is blood-and-guts rolling up your sleeves and getting messy in the work.
The work is to figure out the work.
If you stop holding what you want in such high esteem, then you’ll start breaking through. It’s reachable in the here & now, where you are. It’s not mythic or other-worldly or achievable only by “the greats”.
I’m not trying to be disrespectful of our art or saying we shouldn’t strive to reach new levels in our personal expression of it. I am, however, about breaking the (bullshit) illusion that it’s beyond reproach and so preciously held higher than we mortals could ever aspire to achieve.
The entertainment world has been democratized. You have unprecedented access to creating. Some people still go the traditional route of stepping into a big agency and landing a successful TV show, but there are now 10,000 other ways to get where you want to go.
So don’t continue that narrative of “I can’t,” “I never,” “I won’t,” “I don’t.” Get out of that mindset that only supports the worst outcome. Realize it’s all right in front of you. Not above you. Right here, all around you.