Tag Archives: Fear of Failure

5 Steps To Fulfilling Your Dreams

Posted on January 29, 2015 by AMP Talent Group

January Means it’s Time to Get a Head Start on What You Want for 2015! I presume for a lot you reading this, acting is your dream. It’s the thing that stirs your soul and makes you feel alive. It’s your passion and what you’re hoping will one day be your full time job and […]

January Means it’s Time to Get a Head Start on What You Want for 2015!

I presume for a lot you reading this, acting is your dream. It’s the thing that stirs your soul and makes you feel alive. It’s your passion and what you’re hoping will one day be your full time job and lead to a very exciting and fulfilling career. Firstly, I commend you for being courageous and deciding to walk the path of your dream. For a lot of people, their dreams remain ideas, things they talk about but never really take action towards; they remain as pictures they drew in elementary school of what they wanted to do when they grew up, but fear got the best of them and they took the safe route. But if you’re reading this article, you’ve probably already done the hardest part — commit yourself to walking the path of your dream, no matter where it may lead you.

Dreams are big and scary, and sometimes hard to imagine that they could possibly come true, so how do you deal with their sheer vastness in a way that makes them seem more manageable?

Identify What You Want Your Legacy To Be.

This is a very important question to ask yourself before you walk fearlessly in the direction of a large goal or dream. What do you want to be remembered for? This really breaks down and clarifies why you want to achieve this dream. You will know that your dream is in line with your truest self if your big goal is in perfect alignment with what you want to be remembered for as a person, what you want people to think or say when your name comes up. You should write your legacy down on paper, so the driving force behind the pursuit of this dream will become permanently etched into your mind and what fuels your motivation. So do you want to be remembered for making people laugh? For making great movies? For being one of the best dramatic actors to ever live? It’s important that you nail this down so this dream of yours can have some context and purpose towards what you desire in your life.

Set Goals and Visualize.

“Whatever the mind can conceive and believe, it can achieve.” — Napoleon Hill

I believe this is absolutely the most important grass roots step in the pursuit of a big goal or dream. A dream becomes a goal when it’s put down on paper, but it’s just some fantasy or fairy tale when it’s kept in all wishy washy in your mind. You have to put a VERY SPECIFIC goal down on paper and then break down the necessary steps to arriving at that specific goal. You will have to break the path to your goal down into specific parts, by creating short-term and long-term goals. Your short-term goals will definitely change as you complete them, or other things come up, but your long-term goal will be the guiding force in your life. The most successful 1% of the population sets goals and the most successful 0.1% of that 1% reads and updates their goals regularly (Source: Brian Tracy). So by making an active choice to set goals, read them every day, and update them once a month, you’re already setting yourself up for massive success. To add to your goal setting regiment, you need to spend some time visualizing your goals coming to fruition. Visualize your world after you achieve your biggest goal — picture how you’re feeling, the excitement and contentment that you feel inside, how happy and inspired others around you are, and generally, just how fulfilled you feel. Goal setting and regular visualization are going to be the seeds that not only help your dreams grow, but help to make you believe that you can actually accomplish them.

Surround Yourself With People On A Similar Path.

Find people that support you. You may have people that you’ve been friends with for a long time, but you reach a point where it becomes perfectly clear that you’re headed down completely different paths. They begin to take you away from your goals by not supporting you, or believing that you can actually accomplish the things you’re setting out to do. You don’t need to completely remove these people from your life (you have all the history with them) but you do need to manage how much of an influence they will have on you. You won’t be able to see them every single weekend, as you will continuously get discouraged because they keep badgering you, “When are you going to get a real job? Are you still trying to pursue the acting thing?” Trying to become an actor, or artist and someone who’s successful in the entertainment industry is a very long and exhausting road — something that someone who doesn’t work in the industry won’t understand (particularly if they work in the corporate world or a standard 9-5 job). This is why it’s very important that you create a circle of actor friends, or friends that work in the industry that you’re pursing a career in. This way you will have people to bounce ideas off, as well as people that just generally support you and believe that you can accomplish your dream. They will be able to spot the talent in you, the drive, and all the potential you have to do everything you’re trying to do. These are the people that you will probably connect with the most and be the most like-minded with, but mostly, they will help bring you closer to your goals. They will probably know people and be able to put you in touch with people who will help you to get ahead in your career. If you don’t have any friends that have the same dream as you, or work in the industry you’re trying to get into, then you really need to make some changes to who you are hanging out with if you’re serious about accomplishing your dream.

Welcome failure into your life.

This is the hardest one to accept, but it’s one of the most important. One of the greatest pre-requisites for success is failure. This is definitely true for entrepreneurs, as well as artists. The only way you’re going to get better, improve your technique and strategy, is by failing thousands of times. Success comes with a price, through a series of failures that you live through and overcome to create something better. You just have to have the endurance, patience, and persistence to understand that with every failure you go through, you’re getting closer to your big break, or opportunity for everything to turn around in your favour. Failure also makes success feels warranted, making you feel like you’ve earned everything that’s come your way. You don’t want to become hugely successful without feeling like you’ve gone through the gauntlet of struggle. The feeling of triumph will be completely squashed by the fact you feel like someone that just got lucky, instead of having earned every inch that came your way. So welcome failure into your life. You’re the one who decided to chase a dream, which means you chose to walk a path of criticism and skepticism from others, as well as path that will force you to walk into the fear of the unknown being judged every step of the way by people who want to bring you down. Failure is your friend, welcome it, and learn from it.

Follow the stories of the key players in your industry.

Your dream is to become an actor, so my first piece of advice is to read every single biography of every actor that inspires you. If they have a biography book, go buy their book and take every word to heart. I would suggest that you watch shows such as Inside the Actor’s Studio and note the stories of how the actors got to be at the level they are at now, as well as their words of wisdom for beginning actors starting out in the industry. I would also suggest that you watch as many interviews as you can from actors who you respect and look up to for how they get into character for each role they play, and what they’ve learned from peers in their industry whom they respect. Just as a writer should study the work of the writers they most admire, you have to study the bodies of work of the best actors in the game. That way you can find certain things about their preparation methods, or course they took to success that you can try and mirror in your own career. For these are the actors and people who you aspire to be like, as well as hope to have a career that will be even just a slight semblance of.

I know from my own experiences that choosing to chase a dream is a tough thing to fully commit to, but once you do, you’re on your way. You are finally on the path that you’re intended to be on. However long it took you to get here, it doesn’t matter, because you’ve arrived and are now ready to make any sacrifice necessary to make things happen for yourself. That’s a huge turning point and something that you should feel good about. Just be prepared that along the way there will be endless obstacles, but if you make a conscious choice to overcome absolutely everything that comes in front of you and your dream, your success will happen, it’s just a matter of when.

In order to achieve a dream, you first have to completely surrender to it; you have to tell yourself that you’re at mercy to this path, wherever it may lead you. That’s because you love it, how it makes you feel inside, it’s something you can’t describe or properly put into words, you’re guided by a purpose, something greater than yourself.

Top 10 Secrets To Success

Posted on July 15, 2014 by AMP Talent Group

So you want to succeed in the entertainment business? Here are 10 of the most important tips you’ll need to live by in order to find the success you’re looking for: 1. Love What You Do. The most important thing with any artistic pursuit is that you absolutely love it. It’s a hard road being […]

So you want to succeed in the entertainment business? Here are 10 of the most important tips you’ll need to live by in order to find the success you’re looking for:

1. Love What You Do.

The most important thing with any artistic pursuit is that you absolutely love it. It’s a hard road being an artist or a creator, but it’s also a very rewarding one if you’re in it for the right reasons. It’s important to ask yourself the question, “Is this something that I can live without?” If your answer is “no” then you know that you have to do it.

2. Be All In (Complete Commitment).

The people that choose to be actors, models or artists, have to be completely and utterly committed to it. The people that call themselves “part-time actors” are never going to be successful because they aren’t completely committed to it. Whether it’s fear of failure, or even a fear of admitting that they want to do this, holding yourself back and not putting it as the most important goal in your life is setting yourself up for failure. When you make the decision that you want to be an actor, that goal has to be the driving force in your life. If it isn’t, and it’s just slotted in as a “hobby”, then you don’t stand a chance of succeeding.

3. Always Be Working And Studying.

The simple truth is that those who are practicing are those who are working. The only time that you shouldn’t be studying and practicing is when you don’t have enough time because you’re working so much. No matter how talented, or experienced you are, there is always something for you to learn. The most successful actors understand the value of always staying a student. They understand that there will always be someone smarter than them, or more talented than them that they can learn from. A List, award winning actors such as Meryl Streep, Russell Crowe, Christian Bale, and Anne Hathaway and countless others continue to study with coaches and master the craft of acting, even to this day. Remaining humble and working hard at learning the craft and studying is a key force in driving home your success.

4. Patience And Persistence

Being an actor requires an enormous amount of patience. Whether it’s waiting for the next audition, or waiting for the cameras to start rolling, actors are always waiting. It’s the name of the game and has to be something that they can handle. At the opposite end is persistence. So many careers are sprouted from stories of perseverance and sticking it out when the rough times came. It’s essential that you’re in for your career for the long haul and won’t jump ship when you can’t afford to pay your hydro bill or your sleeping on a friends couch, as well as have the endurance to continue to pound away on your craft even when the breaks aren’t coming your way.

5. Create Your Own Opportunities.

In order to get lucky, you have to work extremely hard and show initiative by creating your own opportunities. So in other words, don’t be lazy. Be proactive and create your own projects. This keeps your skills in top shape, as well as creates products that could be launching platforms for your talents. This also helps your Talent Agent to better market you for even bigger opportunities. Whether it’s to market yourself as an actor, writer, or filmmaker, creating your own projects sows initiative, and is how a lot of people get discovered. Remember Goodwill Hunting? Matt Damon started writing that script in a playwriting class at Harvard in his fifth year. Then with the blessing of his teacher, Damon dropped out of school and moved to LA to finish the script with his good buddy Ben Affleck. That movie launched both those actor’s careers into the stratosphere. If it wasn’t for them taking it upon themselves to create their own movie (vehicle) to market their acting talents, then the names Matt Damon and Ben Affleck might mean absolutely nothing to us now. Or how about Garden State? Zach Braff wrote and directed that little movie, which turned him into a household name overnight. The best example is probably HBO “Girls” creator, Lena Dunham, who quickly became the “talent of the moment” by continuously creating her own projects that showcased her writing, directing, and acting talents. She even created the show Girls, based loosely off her own life in New York. This just shows how important it is to create your own things. You can’t catch your breaks and get lucky without working hard and going after what you want with passion, initiative and good work ethic.

6. Find A Mentor.

A lot of very successful people (in and out of the entertainment industry) will tell you that it’s impossible to be successful without a mentor. That’s because a mentor helps you to steer the ship. They help to cut years off your road to success by making sure you’re doing the necessary things in the present to help you get to your end goal. Talent Agent, Anne Marie Perrault says “Finding a mentor is absolutely essential and can be a major a factor in ones career success. It is important to seek out professionals in the field as they are a wonderful source of career advice. The best ways to find one would be to find someone in the industry that you admire, whether it’s someone you meet on set, or a teacher who you really respect, in some cases it can even be your Agent or Manager”. Don’t be shy to ask someone if they’d be interested in mentoring you as well. They will take it as a compliment. You can meet regularly to talk about your career, or you can even just keep in touch through email or on Skype to ask questions, and check-in every now and again. Your mentor will be essential in helping you to answer those difficult questions, help lift you up when times are tough, and ultimately, help you strive to becoming a better performer and person.

7. Take Full Responsibility For Everything That Happens To Tou.

The first step to happiness and success is taking full responsibility for where you are in your life. The moment you stop pointing the blame on other people, or things, is the moment that you finally point yourself in the direction of success. So you didn’t get that audition? The director did not think you where right for it or had someone else in mind. You didn’t book the role? It’s nobody’s fault but your own for not delivering the way you needed to or maybe you just are not ready, or are having a bad day. Leave it at the door. Don’t beat yourself up for it. Use any shortcomings and failures as an opportunity to look at yourself in the mirror and figure out how you can be better. Learn from each experience. Your career and your life is completely up to you, you’re the one in control of your fate, so make sure you step up to the plate. The happiest and most successful people in life are those who feel they have complete control over their lives. This starts with accepting complete responsibility for where you are and understanding that you’re the one in control of your success or failure.

8. Set Goals

So you want to be the next big leading man or woman, do you? Yes that’s a lofty goal, but can you do it? You better believe you can! It’s definitely a big dream, so how do you make it seem more manageable, or achievable? You break your dream down into something smaller; you break it down into parts called goals. Then you break down the steps that you will need to complete (accomplish) in order to reach those specific individual goals. Once you do this, your wildest dreams will seem a little more in reach. You have to have a plan; you have to create a vision for your career. You do this by creating goals on paper, then continuously visualizing yourself successfully moving towards those goals. When Jim Carrey was a broke, struggling comic, he would drive up to Mulholland Drive a few nights a week and visualize himself making it big in Hollywood. He even wrote a check to himself for 10 million dollars and filled it out as “acting services rendered”. It was only a number of years later when he became one of the biggest stars on the planet; booking roles for the exact amount of money he said he would, 10 million dollars. Believe you can, believe you will, create a vision, put it down on paper!

9. Take Risks

Those that take risks get noticed. Most people will say that choosing to become an actor is a big risk in the first place. They may be right. Actors have to take risks on a regular basis. It’s part of what being an artist and a performer is all about! When you choose to pursue your passion as a profession, you have to face fear and walk down a road that offers very little security. This is the all-important first risk that you’re going to have to take. You then have to continue walking down that road fearlessly. You have to believe in the process, believe that the journey you are on will take you to where you want to go. You will also have to task risks regularly with new roles and parts that come your way. You’re going to need to venture out of your comfort zone and try new things, do roles that scare you and really go for it with complete disregard for failure. They say that success is a sum of thousands of failures, and they’re right. Failure is success’ most important pre-requisite, which is even truer when it comes to the performing arts. Take risks, overcome fear, and you will grow closer to success!

10. Be Confident And Believe In Yourself.

On your “Road to Success” you’re going to have to make a lot of big decisions. In order to do this, you’re going to have to be strong and be true to yourself. If you continue to do that, you will make decisions that are the most agreeable to who you are as a person and you will stay on the right path. You have to be confident in yourself and make sure you treat yourself the right way. On your path to success, a lot of people will tell you that you’re crazy and you won’t ever reach the big dreams you’ve set for yourself. You have to silence those voices, look inside and believe in that vision you have for yourself. Not everybody is going to see what you see, so you have to understand that and not dwell on the opinions and perceptions of others. Confidence and success is made by marching toward your goals and dreams with massive action, even in the face of adversity and fear of failure. This is an absolute must in achieving big success!

It’s a comforting feeling knowing that your success is completely up to you. You’re the one in control of the universe you create for yourself. Understanding and believing in this is definitely the starting point for every big dream or goal. Start living by this philosophy and your success will start to grow exponentially.

Now go out there and build the life you’ve always dreamed of!