Your G-spot

The wonderful G-spot.

And I’m not talking about that sexy little passtime better left for reading about in Mills and Boons books or that amazing podcast The Hotbed Collective (seriously people this podocast is genius).

I’m actually talking about spotting your Acting Goals (oh that G-spot!!). Spotting your main goals and then systematically working on them.

You must have heard or read the statistics over the years that indicate that people who set goals are so much more likely to achieve them. For example, in one Forbes article I read, they cited the following:

A Harvard Business Study found that the 3% of graduates from their MBA who had their goals written down, ended up earning ten times as much as the other 97% put together, just ten years after graduation.

Taken from this article by Annabel Acton.

Work brings work. And goal setting brings – well…results.

So first things first – if you’ve done this with me before, trust me, it’s likely that it’s been a while and it’s time to DO IT AGAIN.

Here’s your new to do list:

1. Find a large piece of blank paper. Make it big and roomy. None of these tiny thumb sized journals fit for a Barbie doll. Get out at least an A4 sized book or piece of paper.
2. Locate your goals from last year. Have you completed them all?
3. Now take a look at your old workbook / goal sheet / action list that you set up for yourself based on those goals. What can you tick off? What’s done and dusted? Put a gold star next to it, a smiley face, or cross it out. Whatever you find satisfying to show this item has been completed.
4. If an item no longer applies, cross it out. Write NA (not applicable) next to it so your mind knows you didn’t fail, you just changed direction.
5. What’s still on the list to be achieved? Read over those goals again, checking they are still relevant, and transfer them to your new shiny blank sheet of paper.
6. Are there any new things you really really want to do this year?
7. Looking at this new list on your new sheet of paper, sort your remaining goals in order of 1 through to 5 (or how ever many you wrote down), putting a 1 next to the one you most want to achieve this year, and so on… Check if there’s anything missing from that top 5. If there’s a new big goal you need on that list, add it in.
8. Now go back to the goal you’ve made number one and jot down like little tree branches to cover all the things you need to do over the next few weeks to get this goal ticked off or, at the very least, started. Now number each tree branch base on what has to be done in what order.
9. Next look at goal number 2 and do the same. This doesn’t need to be in huge detail. It might just be like this:

GOAL 1 – GET SHOWREEL UPDATED

• Call/email directors I recently worked with
• Chase footage from short film I did three months ago
• Research editors; consider anyone I worked with recently I can ask
• Could I ask a director who I loved working with? Is there a company I can use?
• Email my mate who might know some good editors
• Send the footage via wetransfer to the editor, director or company. Ask for an ETA on when it will be ready.
• Once received, check I’m happy with it.
• Send it to 1-3 industry professionals whose opinion I value to check they think it’s good/suitable/short enough.
• After the final updated version has been received, add new reel to Spotlight, CNI, Mandy, Actors Access, Backstage, website, Vimeo etc.

1. Now give your goal a date. Make it realistic. If you know it’ll take a week to email editors and directors and hear back, then a week to chase up the footage, you’re probably going to need a good solid month in total to finish this showreel editing goal.
2. Put a diary reminder in your smart phone, on a calendar, or in your old school diary.
3. And finally, once you’ve nailed down goal 1, 2, and 3, try and and include them in your meditation or visualisations practice for the week. This is a tremendous tool for firmly cementing the fulfilment of your new actionable goals.

And that’s it.

So let’s refresh:

SET THE GOALS

DETAIL THEM OUT AS A TREE

ORDER THOSE ACTIONS

MAKE SURE THEY’RE ACTIONABLE PLANS

GIVE YOUR GOAL A DATE

BE SPECIFIC WITH EACH COMPONENT

MAKE IT REALISTIC IN TERMS OF WHEN AND HOW YOU’LL GET IT DONE

 

Systematically work through your list and get your tree branches in order for your first three goals at least. If you get stuck, we can always work on these together at some point if you want to do a session.

The one thing I can promise you is if you keep focusing on and working on a few specific goals, YOU will get direct results. You may not complete it as you expected. Maybe it’ll go even better than you expected. But it will mean you will start to work on your goal and you’ll be that much more likely to achieve it (you wanna be that 3% in the Harvard Report after all – not the other 97% phaffing about). If you can put this list up somewhere near your laptop or where you look frequently through the week (fridge, bathroom door, kitchen wall), you can make sure it isn’t another six months before you come back and take affirmative action on your goals.

Email me and let me know what your number 1 goal is for the next 3-6 months. Or drop it in the comments below. I would love to know what you’re working on right now.