The Great Acting Blog: “Overcoming Self-Inflicted Unhappiness”
All actors go through difficult periods in their lives. There are times when we feel we are never going to work again and other times when we seem to suffer indignity after indignity. The spin-off from this unhappiness is that the downsides of acting (financial insecurity, challenge of getting work) begin to seem intolerable. Our morale is sapped, our self-belief is shaken and our mind becomes clouded with negative thinking. The pressure mounts.
When actors get lost in this trough, they often think that the best way to get out of it is to quit and go do something else. The act of quitting means a release from the pressure and the dark clouds dissipate as a result.
The true source of perturbation however, is not the situation as it is now but the thought that it will never get any better in the future. This is what gets most people. They look forward and see only more of the same misery, and so the cost of quitting becomes less than remaining committed. But a small adjustment to thinking could so easily change everything. Instead of being floored by problems today, know that if we keep working through them then eventually the situation will change. Sure we’ll encounter more difficulties in the future but we can cross those bridges when we come to them. Deal only with what is in front of us today.
This is linked to having a vision for your career. Instead of obscuring that vision with difficulties, focus on the vision clearly in order to overcome the difficulties. This will get rid of the temporary and self-inflicted unhappiness. Then we can get on with fulfilling our ambitions.
