How to Reinvent your Career
We see it over and over again
In only a few short years
Someone going from a dead end in their career
To suddenly delivering exactly the kind work they dreamed of
In other words
Reinvention
And acting is no exception
For the vast majority of actors
There is a common feeling of
“This just isn’t going anywhere”
And that’s okay
In fact
If you’re noticing that thought
Celebrate it
Because it means you’re aware of it
And awareness equals choice
And choice means change
I repeat
You have a choice to change
Trust me
I’m a complete idiot
How much of an idiot you ask?
Earlier this year I ruined a take by trying to pick up a prop whilst facing away from camera and I split my pants
($30 million dollars and what do you get? Michael Sheasby’s undies)
Ahhhh what’s sad is I have so many more stories like that
ANYWAY
I’m an idiot
But even I went from feeling utterly stuck & resenting acting with all my being in 2015
To being nominated alongside my heroes for work I was genuinely proud of fourteen months later
So if I can do it
You absolutely can make progress toward whatever meaningful goals you have over the next year
So
The following is a slow, kind & simple (I said simple, not easy) process
For reinventing your career in 2024
This process will require the most basic & important ingredients of honesty, clarity, and action
Here we go
One
Inspiration
Identify the work that inspires you most
The work that makes your body feel energised, alive, playful, exhilarated, meaningful, light, love… home
The work where you know, deep down, you belong
The work that makes you think “If I could just give that to this world, it would all be worth it”
The work that brings an easy breath to your body
Let’s avoid the de-energising shoulds here
The artists, films, plays, styles, that you should like in order to please others
Listen to what your body is yearning for
Let it lead
The body is the best guidance system we have
Better to trust millions of years of evolution
Over exhausting, erratic & fashionable noise
It’s simple really
Gun to your head, what kind of work makes you feel “fuck yes”?
Two
Skills & Behaviour
Once you are clear and honest about the kind of work that inspires you most
Identify the skills & behaviour required to give that kind of work to this world
The skills will be influenced by the style of work you love
If you love American 3-camera sitcoms
This will require very different skills to that of arthouse films
The skills of pantomime on stage will be very different to that of modern day musicals
etc
Then
Look at the kind of person you have to be to gain and deliver these skills
The kind of person who is honest when it’s hard to be?
The kind of person who focuses on what they can control?
The kind of person who surrounds themselves with energising people?
The kind of person who asks for help?
The kind of person who spends more money on practice each month then on drugs?
The kind of person you trusts their instincts?
Etc, etc
Three
Prioritisation
Use Pareto’s principle (AKA 80/20 Rule) to prioritise the skills & behaviour most important for your reinvention.
Roughly speaking
In an ocean of technique
There will be a few
Which will work well for the majority people the majority of time
These are to be prioritised
So if you wrote down ten skills which are required for you to deliver the kind of work you love
Clarify the two most important ones
Then focus your time & energy on only those two skills
Forget about the other eight for now
Remember
Amateurs try do lots
Pros do less
That’s why they do it better
Four
Action
Distill those specific skills & behaviour down to their simplest & most repeatable iterations.
Boil the skill or behaviour down until you find the smallest gem you can
Then take that gem
And make it non-negotiable
That’s the tiny little thing you do
Every day or week
Rain, hail or shine
Small gems don’t add up
They compound
(Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world for a reason)
And finally
Five
Patience
The ability to slow down when your fear urges you to speed up
In an industry where it can feel like you are falling behind if you haven’t had an audition in a week
It takes a hell of lot to build the muscle of patience
To say no when you really feel like you should say yes out of fear
I am sitting in my garage right now
Sweating
I received some news a few hours ago
And my fear is yelling at me to push, force and try claw at things which are outside of my control
So I have decided instead to interrupt the system
Go back to my breathing
Try my best to let my body know its safe
& that it’s more then okay to stay in my timezone
Rather then rushing into everyone else’s
Sometimes
The hardest thing to do
Can simply be nothing
Hope this helps
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