Stuck

We all feel ‘stuck’ in our marathon run of a career in the entertainment industry.

So, let’s start there!

1st are you thinking you’re career is a sprint or a marathon?

Sprint looks like: ‘everything should have happened yesterday.’

Marathon: ‘It’s OK, if this doesn’t happen today, I’m in this for the life time.’

‘Stuck’ often means I’ve lost track of the long-term relationship I’ve decided to have – my marathon. Like a marathon, we can hit the brick wall of: ‘Will I keep going or stop?’

It’s so amazing when you see the other side of ‘stuckness’ or ‘brick wallness’ or whatever you call it.

How do you keep going?

Get curious.

Be brave.

Be quiet and sit with it.

If we are in the creative industries we can let our imagination find it’s way around the problem.

That can look like many things, but 1st stop, wait and listen to yourself.

Brainstorm solutions – maybe even start with those you’ve already done, just start to get going – then let your mind free fall into the possible – wild & crazy ideas until you land on something that just might be interesting enough to try out.

Share this process with a supportive friend – brain storm together and try to listen to their suggestions before you knock them down or say I’ve already tried that. There might be something in the process you haven’t tried. Or haven’t dared to try, like picking the phone up and starting to do your own ‘pitch’ calls to casting directors, producers, directors or writers you want to get in front of.

Stopping can look like: a holiday, a walk in nature, a bubble bath, in reality it’s just me time without outside distractions.

Keeping Motivated

Never deny your down times.

We are in an industry of highs and lows. Look at this way, we never stop doing job interviews, in fact, part of our job is to become brilliant at job interviews – which means learning how to deal with rejection – almost daily!

Program  breaks into your life.

Yip, take a break. Realise not only do you need it mentally, but physically. Driving yourself all the time is not possible for anyone. Even top athlete’s take breaks for down time and let the body/mind rest.

These can be hard to go through as feelings of loss and fear of ‘is anything gonna happen next?’ can creep in and cripple your mind set.

Set time limits on these periods, but always allow yourself to feel the loss of that project that’s just ended.

You can experiment with how long, but try a least 24 to 48 hrs. Then stop/drop & roll out the blues.

Stop: as I’ve already explained

Drop: the negative thinking and

Roll: onto positive thoughts

How do you find positive thoughts – turn the negatives on their head. Make the problem the solution.

It can look like this:

‘I can’t do this.’ – becomes ‘I can do this, even if I can’t see my way through it all today.’

Start from where you are and just keep moving forward, don’t look at the whole mountain, just the next step. An elephant is eaten 1 bite at a time.

Disclaimer: No elephants were eaten to write this blog 😉

Share your ideas of how you keep going and get unstuck below.