The universe knows things that you don’t. In the middle of last week, I thought I wanted this job at this cafe and I was sure that I was going to get it. The job would have had me working 5:00-1:15pm every weekday. I thought I wanted this. I didn’t get the job, and now I’m glad. I realized that I shouldn’t be using my time to make an hourly wage.
Since finishing school I’ve had a lot of time to focus on my career, and I’ve been focusing. I’m still only working weekends and Monday nights, so this means I have an awesome amount of time off to focus on my actual career goals. My focuses this month are on:
- Acting – mainly the business aspect of getting an agent, becoming more active on twitter, and fulfilling my goal of booking one commercial.
- Writing – I got a job as Vancouver Healthy Living Examiner for the website examiner.com. This will give me an opportunity to get paid based on the amount of views I receive. I watched several orientation videos today, and tomorrow I’m going to write my first article on the BMO 1/2 marathon.
- Voice – as an actor voice this is extremely important, and I have my first speech level singing lesson next Friday. I’m very excited about this.
- Body – dance specifically. I’ve been taking dance classes at the Harbour Dance studio this week, deciding on one that I would really like to focus on. I did a contemporary Jazz class today that I really loved. I think that I may decide to focus on that one. It was just a lot of fun.
- Personal Training – every night I have committed to studying 5 pages in the NSCA personal training text book. The exam is in October, and I figure that if I can set aside a little bit of time every day I will be in good shape.
- Blogging – and of course keeping up with this blog. I started this blog over a year ago, and it has turned into something that I feel a large amount of pride in. It’s mine. There’s definitely something about having a vehicle for your voice that’s yours, and that you have complete control over. It’s a pretty empowering feeling
This might seem like a lot, but since I’m only working 20 hours a week I have plenty of time at my disposal. Everyday these past few weeks has been full and productive. I am so grateful for the many opportunities that I’ve been given.
Moving forward I’ve decided to make visualization and meditation a part of my morning routine. Also, I signed with an agency today! May 1st. It is one of my goal to book a commercial this month. Perhaps this will allow me to quit my part-time job all together.
Here’s where I’ve been going wrong. I’ve been thinking small, and I have been ungrateful for the opportunities which have been presented to me. Ungrateful in the sense that because they happened to me, I’ve discounted their worth. “Oh, well… I guess it wasn’t that hard” – have you ever said that to yourself? It’s a lie that we tell ourselves because we’re afraid of our own potential. We have difficulty seeing ourselves as great, but we are great.
This week, pay attention to any opportunities you are given and take a moment to say Thank you.
Gratitude precedes abundance.
Where are you going to place your focus this month?
Focus: Submitting my writing, buying my new house and deciding what to do about the world of work (like you).
Thanks for the positive inspiration!
Buying a new house :O That’s huge!! Congratulations. What sorts of things are you working on? Yes, the world of work. It’s funny, because I’m working more than I ever have before… I’m just not getting paid for it yet.
It was huge 5 years ago when I bought my 1st property, I am looking forward to finally living with my partner. I have re-launched my freelance career this year, I started blogging to document the journey. This year I have submitted about 14 pieces including 2 book proposals (one Non- Fiction including a sample chapter) & a poetry collection. The others have been a mixture of short stories, poetry and memoir.
I am a published poet and worked as a performance poet and workshop facilitator when I was fresh out of University (Performing Arts Grad,) This year I am training and filling my toolkit up, I haven’t done any writing courses for over 13 years and I am interested in writing across genres.
Since April I have done a comedy scriptwriting workshop, attended a network meeting, started an online writing course, booked classes that start in a week for writing for children (perfect as I have been working with kids a while!) and have just booked a series of performance writing workshops.
I managed to get 54,000 words on my Non-Fiction manuscript (long term project bubbling away in the background) finished in Camp NaNoWriMo & produced 30 new poems for NaPoWriMo too.
I still have to create my visualisation board – I am doing okay with research and a writing schedule but there is a much bigger picture to aim towards.
Currently this month I am writing a children’s story and a piece for theatre, as well as the classes, If I have time I hope to submit more stories too and need to start on journalism/ article writing.
I may have the opportunity to train in a method I can then get paid to facilitate in community action groups too.
As well as working (fortunately Part-Time for now) and trying to sell my apartment and move into the new house.
I wish you well on chasing your dreams. I am sure you will succeed. I wanted too and just looking at this long post I can be proud that I am doing all I can. From the posts I read on your blog you have the same determined mindset – and you have age on your side too!
Oh my god!! You’ve been busy! Wow. Congratulations on all of your hard work, it really sounds like it’s taking off. That’s one of my dreams, to be a published author… or rather project. I should take my own advice. How did it feel when your very first work was published?
I am also working part-time, just to have that cushion income while I wait to get paid for what I do. It only works out to 20 hours a week and with my tax return that’s all I need.
Please keep me updated on everything you’re doing! I will continue to read your blog of course.
Thank you for the well wishes. I just want to say that reading this, I mean… wow. You are so inspiring. What a work ethic!!
Hello! Great blog! I adore finding new and inspiring blogs, so thank you. I just wanted to say that I really relate to your comment about discounting the worth of something because it happened to you and therefore can’t have been that hard. I so do that! When I book an acting role, I figure that there must have only been a couple of people who actually auditioned or they must have all been awful for ME to get the part, and then I worry that perhaps the project isn’t very high calibre, otherwise why would they have hired me. Ridiculous, stupid censor voice in my head. Anyway, loving the blog and loving the Artists Way. Very excited to see what comes up!