Getting Personal

Feeling introspective today, so I wanted to finish putting out my goals for my 31st year, but this time I have my personal ones. Sometimes my personals goals get all wrapped up in my professional ones, or I forget to have personal goals because I'm so busy chasing my professional ones. So here they are - my personal goals for my 31st year, things I'm recommitting myself to making possible.

- Keep business hours for my acting business, and then keep my personal hours for myself and my husband. Meaning keep them separate. Unless I have an audition or a booked job, I will not be working on weekends. Period. Or in the evening when Jason gets home from work.

-Keep getting my booty to the gym. I have a very physical day job, there are days when I teach 4-5 dance classes and sometimes it wipes me out. Regardless, I need to keep my gym dates 3-4 days a week. I am getting older, and I need to keep my body healthy and fit. As they say, "If you don't use it, you lose it." It's really not all vanity, either. I feel better, my moods are better, my... EVERYTHING is better when I am doing regular strength training.

-To reach out to the important people in my life more often. I'm a bad phone caller. Terrible. Just ask my best friend. I recognize that this is a problem, and I am trying to fix it. And doing a bad job at that too. So I'm going to fix it one call at a time.

-Keep sleep and lots of water every day a priority. This goes along with the gym bit, really, but I want to continue trying to get 8-9 quality hours of sleep per night and drinking plenty of water every day.

-Get more sunshine. I work during daylight hours, and with the shorter winter days I don't see much of the sun. Vitamin D keeps me happy, so I need to try to get out in it at least fifteen minutes a day. Fortunately, we live in Florida, and at this time of year we have GREAT weather! For example, I am outside writing this right now. And it's gorgeous.

-Breathe deeply more often.

-Keep our commitment to get away one weekend a month. I feel like we really only relax when we get away and limit our phone use and just try to be together.

-Take Indy for more walks or play ball more often.

-See more of the state where I live. Take advantage of being here and be more active outside - riding bikes, kayaking, swimming, etc...

-Find something new that I'm excited to learn or do. I have no idea what that is yet, but it would be fun to do something different and out of the box.

That's what I'm working with right now. How about you?

WHY? And then HOW?

I'm taking this really awesome marketing course (slash life course!) called Build Your Own Buzz to start off 2014.  I'm still in the first module and all I can say is... wow.

I was challenged to remember why I started acting in the first place.  That's tough - I started acting because it was where the things I loved to do - dance and sing - met.  I chose to pursue acting because I love to entertain, to make people happy, to take them on a journey away from their lives for a little while.  My original love for acting was born in the musical theatre, but is no longer limited to that format.

I do it because I love to make people smile, to laugh, to feel like getting up and joining in. And to be honest - when I'm doing that, it's EASY. And I am filled with so much JOY.

So, the next part of that is to connect that ease and joy with the work that I have been hired for in the last year or so.  It's about 50/50: 50% broad comedy - whether commercial or theatrical - and about 50% very heavy drama, often involving me dying in some gruesome way.

But what I LOVE is the comedy, so I'm going to move forward with that as my focus this year, though there is not much comedy work to be found here in Orlando.  It's almost all drama/horror/thriller from an independent movie standpoint.  And that's valid - you have to work with the filmmakers around you - to support their work and help them achieve their creative vision. Fortunately, I have the skills to contribute in that vein, and I am HAPPY to continue to do so.  But is it what I passionately believe I was meant to do?  No.  When I am really letting it roll, making people laugh, THEN I am exactly where I should be. My ease and joy in that process are indicators.

So now I have to chase that kind of work - to find the filmmakers who are creating comedy in my market - to build authentic, symbiotic relationships with them.

At least I have a target, right?  Then I can sharpen my focus.

So I ask you, today - are you doing what you love?  What DO you love to do?  When do you feel exactly right in this world? Why?  And how can you take a small step towards doing what you love, and bringing your specific gifts to the world?  What's your game plan for 2013?  How can I help YOU to do your life's work?