We’re under constant pressure to create new work while promoting and maintaining current projects—all while juggling multiple auditions, callbacks and rehearsals / shooting at the same time. And let's not forget the social media maintenance that’s essentially required of anyone trying to make a name for themselves in this industry. What about your survival jobs or side hustle to sustain yourself in between gigs? With so many demands on our time, it's no wonder so many of us are feeling too overwhelmed and burnt out to hit peak creativity. Use this technique to up your productivity game and get more done.

There is no doubt that some artists move from obscure to celebrated in a matter of weeks, but it’s not a future most of us will take up. And for those who do, it usually comes with more pain and disappointment than the glamor of overnight success initially promises.

Our hustle culture teaches us that success is measured by how many tasks we check off our to-do list or how many goals we can reach in a given week or month. But what happens when we don’t hit one of those goals? It’s easy to fall off the work wagon, even after a solid streak of success. After all, life happens: Weddings, sickness, moments of inspiration followed by moments of anything but. Auditions, rehearsals, and new career opportunities all have the power to veer us away from our immediate plans and—often rightfully—shift our attention to new and often unexpected priorities. We need a different and more reliable framework for consistent and sustainable motivation. This is where the power of simple directionality comes in.

Like a series of giant waves, our industry can pull us in directions we don't always see coming. Sometimes we think we can brace for it, telling ourselves we've got everything under control, but the tide proves too strong to resist.⁠ So what's the solution to these ever-shifting objectives? To not resist, to accept the undulating waves of priorities that will threaten—and often succeed—to throw us off our game. ⁠

When driven by this scarcity mindset, it’s easy to forget an important thing: Your reps are representing you. But once again, as actors, we're held to a different standard than our peers in other industries. Job interviews in the corporate world, for instance, have long been described as two-way streets: The employer seeks to determine if you're a good fit for the company, and you're sizing up the employer to suss out if they're someone you want to spend years working for. The proceedings are understood to be mutual, and working with talent reps should be no different.

What do creative people need? To be creative? To be free? To be seen, heard and validated? Well, if they want to make a living in the arts we think they need much much more.

Unfortunately, most actors treat their work as a hobby. They may be deeply invested, like a-basement-full-of-model-trains invested, but are ultimately still never taking the next step to making their work a proper career.