Actions vs. Thoughts

As this weekend came to a close, I looked back on my week and how I was miserable for a few days. Nothing was happening. I didn’t have a bunch of work, not a lot of auditions to go on, not a lot of meet ups with friends… it was just… blah. I spent a lot of the time thinking. Just thinking. I thought I needed time to think about what my game plan is, what direction I should go in, what actions I needed to take to get me one step closer to my goal. But at the end of the day, after all that thinking… I was still at the same place as I was when I started thinking. I was nowhere. In fact, I had overthought every possible way that I could go about my day, that I ended up daydreaming and worry started to take over. It was awful. What if acting was not my main focus? What if I got the script written and I wasn’t able to get the funding I wanted? What if I was putting all of my energy in the wrong place? What if I was biting off more than I could chew? What if I fail at all of this? Good lord. I was a mess! Who was I kidding? These negative thoughts were getting me nowhere!

             I had to get out of my head and out of the house, so I took my lovely diva dog Melody for a long walk. As I breathed in the fresh air and looked around, I started to remember that there was this whole world around me, that I was in the present moment and that I had the power to change my life now. I watched as my diva dog barked at who she wanted, smiled at who she wanted, peed where she wanted, and sh*tted where she wanted. She didn’t think about it. She just did what felt right to her. I was like, I need to be more like Melody!

            So I marched back up to my apartment, opened up my laptop, and churned out five new scenes for my feature film script. And let me tell you: IT FELT GOOD. It felt GREAT to see those pages completed. I felt accomplished, and suddenly my morale was high. I decided that thinking is okay, but it’s so much better to take ACTION and DO things that get me one step closer to my goals.

            So this week, ask yourself: what ACTIONS CAN I TAKE to get me one step closer to my goal? Write a scene. Rehearse your lines. Buy healthy groceries. Go to the gym. Do some push ups in your room. Smile. Dance. Kiss your loved one. Don’t think so hard. Just do something. If it doesn’t get you closer to your goals, then you can do something else. But at least you tried something. And that in itself gets you one step closer to making your dreams come true. You can do this!

YES TO THE YING: What actions can you take right now to get you one step closer to your goals?

---