The Reliability Of Change

 The Reliability Of Change. 


I often say that there is one similarity between the entertainment industry and being a parent: Just when you think you’ve figured it out, something proves you wrong.


  • The nap schedule changes.

  • Your TV pilot doesn’t get picked up.

  • Your kid doesn’t like that food anymore.

  • The show you’re on announces it’s closing.

  • Your kids pediatrician announces she’s leaving the office indefinitely

  • The vacation you just booked needs to be canceled because you booked the job you thought you didn’t get. 


What we do as artists - especially if you’re a professional artist and creating/performing is ideally how you pay the bills - is extremely vulnerable. 

I do private coaching with a lot of students and I often see a recurring theme of “I will be happy when……..” coming up in the work. Oftentimes it’s “If I just book this job” or “once I get an agent” or “when I make my Broadway debut. 


I believe this way of thinking works against us (and I say “us” because trust me, I do it too!) because we’re convincing ourselves that where we are right now is ‘not enough’, ‘not good enough’, ‘not complete enough’, ‘not worthy’ etc etc etc and THAT is the energy you’ll carry with you into an audition room with you. 


EVERYTHING changes and very little is secure and guaranteed in this industry. I don’t say that to scare you or be a Debbie Downer, but to encourage you to focus on everything you already have working for you in life already and consider those other things to be a bonus if/when they happen.

If you get an agent, bonus. 

If your pilot gets picked up, bonus.

If you get an Oscar nomination, bonus. 


If you don’t feel content in life, that’ll change and it’ll also likely change back. 

If you don’t feel successful in your career, that’ll change and it’ll also likely change back. 

Find a way of accepting the fact that the only consistent thing in this industry - and life in general - is change. And as artists and creators, there can be something WONDERFUL about living that life, if we allow ourselves to see it that way. 


All the changes you’re experienced in life to this day made you who you are. 

You’re awesome!


Keep up the great work


Mark


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