If you’re an actor, you’ve probably heard a friend say this at one point or another.
Hell, you’ve probably said it yourself.
(Especially if you’re a stage actor)
Dry spells can seriously feel like the end of the line for your career. You were cruising along, everything was going well, and then you come to a screeching halt.
Nothing more frustrating than feeling like everyone is just whizzing past you…
Well, my friend, I’m here to tell you that it happens to everyone.
Full disclosure, I booked ONE job in May. One. Tiny. Job.
I had been booking fairly consistently this year, and felt pretty great!
And then…May happened.
And Mays are GOING TO HAPPEN. But they might be Julys, or Augusts…or Decembers. Or maybe yours went by the stage name “2020.” Honestly, we will never know why we stop booking sometimes.
Plant seeds during the drought, or nothing’s going to come up when it starts raining again
The only ways I know to keep droughts from happening as often are by:
Continuing to plant seeds even when you’re already busy (Check out my article about why you need to coast less and remember to keep pedaling)
And diversifying your income streams (Check out that article here)
“To curse the Gods, please press 7. To speak to a live representative, please remain on hold. Your wait time is approximately three hundred eighty four hours and forty three minutes…Your call is important to us.”
If you are currently screaming at the gods about how unfair it all is, refreshing your email inbox hoping for work, and threatening to quit altogether, here are five ways to both pass the time AND rebuild your momentum, so you can get back to work again soon!
Strengthen your relationships.
You do not exist in a vacuum. If you’ve been holed up working for a while, you probably haven’t seen certain segments of your social network. Make plans with friends you haven’t seen in a while. Check in on creative colleagues to see how they’re doing. Join a meetup group, take a class, or attend a networking event in order to meet some new people!
Information and opportunities come through our relationships with others, so don’t neglect them.
Work on a personal project.
Find something creative that you LOVE to do. Something that you would do even if you never get paid for it. Something different than your primary art form. Something you can lose your self in and then look up and realize it’s 3:15am and you’ve been at it for six hours. Do that thing, and let it breathe life back into your creative soul.
Do some maintenance.
What do I mean by that? Fix your broken sink in the downstairs bathroom. Clean out all those boxes in your garage. Take care of those doctors appointments you’ve been avoiding. Go through your closets and get rid of clutter.
Not only is a slow period a good time to take care of these tasks that we put off when we’re busier, but I honestly think that clutter, mess, and unfinished tasks can weigh on our psyches, making it harder to get our want-to-dos done. Be like the forest fire that clears out the dead underbrush, and allows for new growth.
Expand your sphere.
If you only talk to the same ten people, go to the same places, and do everything the same way all the time, you probably aren’t encountering as many opportunities as you could be.
Shake it up, and find some ways to add novelty to your life. Disrupting your routine is a great way to discover opportunities you weren’t aware of. If you are a creature of habit, start small by taking a different walking route, going to a different coffee shop, or talking to one new person a week. I promise, though, the more you get outside your routine, the more opportunities will magically start appearing in your life.
Help others.
Giving your time to others is a great way to both get your mind off your own troubles and find gratitude for what is good in your life. And if you believe, like I do, that what we put out into the world comes back to us, then that’s just one more reason to look for ways to give to others.
Give support to your friend who’s going through a divorce. Bring your partner wildflowers. Mow your elderly neighbor’s yard. And offer to help your college buddy move…helping someone move automatically gets you +10 Karma Points, cuz you KNOW no one likes moving.
It’s Father’s Day, so I’m going to keep this short this week. Gotta go call my dad, and then check a few more things off this list for myself.
Mercury Retrograde* is almost over—hang in there friends!
Don’t you moonwalk away from me!
*Do I really believe in Mercury Retrograde? Nah, not really. But it’s a very convenient phenomena to blame for the stagnant feel of the past month or so.