When you’re still stuck in your day job, and a lot of time has passed, your dream begins to feel more distant.
The more distant your dream becomes, the less your subconscious understands how to get there.
And the less your subconscious understands, the less you take actions towards your dream.
And the less you take actions towards your dream, the longer you stay in your job.
It’s a vicious cycle and it’s easy to feel trapped.
But there is a way out.
Hollywood throws a lot of crap at you.
It’s an industry that feels like the Mean Girls table at lunch.
I mean, you wore pink on Wednesdays, and you’re still not allowed at the table. WTF?
You’re working hard and doing your best, and all you want to do is sit at the table, and be part of the glamorous life.
But you keep getting knocked down.
Whether it’s articles you read, or phrases you hear around town, the rejection is so much bigger than a “No” at an audition or interview.
Big dreams require big leaps.
And those big leaps can be f*$king scary.
So scary, that most people refuse to take them.
They talk about it ALL. THE. TIME.
But when it comes to actually following through, they're suddenly "too busy."
And become SO good at coming up with excuses, they could major in it.
Do you feel like that's you?
Do you feel like you could major in Excuses and graduate Summa Cum Laude?
You might not even realize it.
"Hollywood Success is Nearly Impossible" — kill. me. now. (After 26 television shows, I'm allowed to make that comment.)
Yes, it may not be easy to make it in Hollywood. But that’s not specific to Hollywood. It’s specific to any Big Dream anyone has ever gone after.
Big Dreams (yes, capitalized, they are proper nouns in my book), have pretty standard requirements: 1) Passion/Drive 2) Dedication 3) Skill 4) Persistence.
You know this. We all know this.
It’s standard for every Big Dream that ever existed, regardless of industry.
So why must Hollywood (or all the articles on Google) choose to make it a soul-crushing experience? Why must they make us feel bad about the decision to pursue this Hollywood-specific dream?
When you're pursuing a dream that ends in a HUGE way, such as winning an Oscar, or Writing a Blockbuster, it's easy to get paralyzed by how big that dream is.
I am a really big fan of HUGE dreams. If your dream doesn't scare the crap out of you, then it just isn't big enough. And life is too short NOT to shoot for the stars. So dream BIG.
But the question is, how to get there?
I'm going to start with a quote that might piss you off.
But trust me, I'm going somewhere with this.
It's by Jack Canfield, the Co-Creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul Series, multi-millionaire, and Success Coach:
You may have to read that one more time. Go ahead, I'll wait.
This quote is pure brilliance, but I know it might be painful.
The other day I was sitting on the couch watching Gilmore Girls reruns.
And simultaneously wasting time on my cell phone.
Because that’s what we all do now.
A quick Facebook scroll led me to a live stream of Tony Robbins imparting wisdom on a high level group of leaders.
Have you SEEN Tony do his thing?
I swear, I wasn’t even that into him until his documentary came out on Netflix.
Now I have a slight obsession.
Every time I watch one of Tony’s videos I LEARN ALL THE THINGS!!
And they inspire me so much to get off my lazy ass.
Until the other day.
There was this one time—let’s call it, “The Worst 9 Months of My Life”—when I was this close to punching someone in the face when they asked me, “So what show are you on now?”
Because I wasn’t working on any show.
And that same person would check in and ask the same question 6 months later and I STILL wasn’t working on any show.
It was embarrassing.
This whole Hollywood thing feels like a never-ending game of hurry-up-and-wait.
Am I right?!
You put yourself out there, book meetings, go to auditions, interview, and then wait. And then you wait some more. Oh, and hey, wait a little longer.
It feels like the power is in the hands of the industry, and you have no control when Simon is going to hit that golden buzzer and let it rain gold confetti as your wish is finally granted. (I know, I love that analogy, but it's just so perfect!)
So it’s very common for you to create other projects or take on other jobs while you wait. Especially when creativity is in your blood and you’re itching to create something.
“I just got lucky” is probably one of the most overused phrases in Hollywood success stories.
Just the other day, I was talking to a coworker about his success story, and he said “I just got lucky that my neighbor helped me break in.”
And then he said, “If it weren’t for that neighbor, I would have never made it.”
Hearing stories like this over and over again make it no surprise that most people believe that they have to get lucky to be successful in Hollywood.
Let me ask you: Do you believe it’s all about luck and timing, so you’re waiting for your lucky break? Is that why you haven’t reached the level of success yet that you’re hoping for?
