5 Great New Year’s Resolutions for Actors
Here are some great New Year’s resolutions you should strive for, if you haven’t already
(By James Webb)
(Photo: Tim Mossholder | Unsplash)
We are a few weeks into the new year and you’ve probably forgotten all your New Year’s resolutions by now. If so, welcome to the club. According to a study conducted by the University of Scranton, only 8% of people achieve their New Year’s goals. The failure rate is a dismal 80%.
You know the routine: people get lazy, people get busy, people forget, or people simply lose their motivation. Life happens!
Well, here are some actor New Year’s resolutions you should strive to keep, if you haven’t already achieved them.
#1: Improve your self-taping skills
Self-taping is becoming a larger and larger part of the audition process. After all, it’s 2023 out there, people! Self-taping is no longer a fad. It is now a fact of life in the #actorslife. In fact, in some acting markets, self-taped auditions are the overwhelmingly dominant method for auditioning prospective actors.
The good news is that actors need not fear self-taped auditions. If anything, it’s something to be embraced. In addition to the convenience of not having to travel to an audition location, self-tapes offer the actor more control over the process.
#2: Create your own content
The idea of becoming a successful actor by doing nothing more than going to auditions and waiting by the phone is an antiquated one. With the technology and social media platforms of today, there simply is no excuse not to take control of your own destiny by creating your own content.
Even established actors work hard to create their own opportunities.
Why not you?
So, create your own short film. Or, perhaps, write and produce a webseries. How about something simple, like, funny YouTube videos to show your comedic skills?
Who knows? You might end up creating a video clip that goes viral and leads to an opportunity. Imagine what it would mean for your acting career if you did.
#3: Improve your budgeting skills
Financial endurance – the ability to survive financially as acting jobs come and go – is an essential skill in the #actorslife. What a shame it is to see a potentially great actor give up on their acting dreams just because they suck at managing money. If you’re one of those actors, perhaps 2023 would be a good time to invest in some books or seminars on money management and budgeting.
Can’t afford to take a seminar or purchase a book? Well, that might be an indication that you need to improve your budgeting skills, since you’d have to be really bad with money to not be able to afford one lousy book!
Not to worry, though. The gods invented something called “the library”. Take a moment between acting gigs to head down to your local library to check out some – FREE – books on ways to preserve your hard-earned residuals and ways to properly budget so you can afford both your rent and your new headshots.
#4: Try something new
Try something new in the new year!
Here are a few new things you can try:
*Musical theater – even if you’re not the best singer
*Stand-up comedy – even if you don’t believe you’re very funny
*Writing a short film – even if you’re not a good writer
*Improv – even if you have trouble thinking on your feet
The point is, push beyond your boundaries. You may discover skills you never knew you had. And from those newly discovered skills can come new experiences and new opportunities.
#5: Become more appreciative
Success in the #actorslife comes and goes. In a New York Minute, you can go from announcing your new co-star role to your friends on Facebook to not booking a meaningful role after 2 years of auditioning, and wondering if you’ll ever book another exciting role again.
When you get an audition, thank the acting gods. When you get a callback, buy yourself a treat. When you book a job, throw yourself a private party.
Make sure your successes, big or small, are seared into your memory. Because these are the successful events you can lean on for inspiration when new successes are not so forth-coming.
Remember, if you only appreciate paid bookings, then you don’t appreciate how difficult it is to be a working actor!
It’s a new year, full of amazing new possibilities. Go get ‘em!
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