The Great Acting Blog: “Struggling Does Not Mean You Are Useless”
Struggling in your career does not mean you are useless. No, it means that you’re trying to attain a goal which is genuinely challenging to you. It takes you out of your comfort zone and reveals your weaknesses. If you’re struggling, don’t lose your confidence and don’t lose your focus. Don’t view struggle as an invitation to quit because, on the contrary, struggle is an invitation to re-double your efforts and  get better at what it is you do.
Improving yourself requires honesty and courage. Many actors cannot face up to the need to improve, and go around pretending to be complacent, pretending that they are in control, that they have nothing to learn. However, the reality is that most of them are absolutely terrified, so terrified in fact that they cannot bare any criticism of themselves or their work, and can only play the scene one way, hoping they will get away with it. They long to remain in the comfort zone, or pretend to be there. Even if they enjoy some early success in their career, eventually they fade away – they lack the strength to continue over the long term because they never went through that process of learning how to improve themselves during their early years. Their accomplishments are built on sand.
Develop the courage to look at your efforts honestly and see which areas you need to strengthen – this work does not have to be done in public, it can be a private affair. The rewards of doing this work though, are myriad. Fundamentally, you will gain the confidence which comes from knowing how to improve yourself, and that you are able to come through tough challenges, that they will not crush you. You will also gain the strength to stay in it for the long haul, and your work will bring you more joy.
Sorry, the comment form is closed at this time.