In this clip from one of our SMFA Master Class weekly calls, lovely Yelena has a survival job that’s got her working 80 hours a week. She’s falling behind in her self-imposed timeline for purusing her acting career full-tilt. She’s not keeping up with the reading we’re doing in SMFA Master Class, and she needs to know how to handle this stress.
“Maybe it’s the ‘think you should’ that is the thing that needs correcting” is one of my favorite lines from Keith on this.
In the end, you absolutely know the difference between resistance and actual signs that there’s better timing at play. When it’s resistance, you push through it and make some changes. When it’s the universe putting you on a better timeline for the magical unfolding of your next tier, you relax your need to be in control.
Whether it’s your survival job, a health emergency, a relationship situation, or anything else that takes you away from your creative pursuit for a bit, this perspective will help remind you to trust the timing of your whole life.
This is not a race. No one is retiring tomorrow — especially not you. We have decades stretched out ahead of us to make our dreams come true. Enjoy the delicious journey… even when it’s on hold.
This SMFA Master Class weekly call was recorded on August 19, 2012.
This is all really great stuff! I think this is a call I will need to revisit frequently over the next few months. 😉
Hooray! 🙂 And yeah… I bet. We can definitely do “yes, and…” stuff on this foundation too. Glad you enjoyed the listen! 🙂
Meeeee tooooo, Chandra! haha
Oh, man, I went STRAIGHT TO THIS when I saw it in the vault. I’ve made the decision to leave my hourly (40 hour) day job in a middle school main office at the end of this school year, in favor of many more flexible freelance jobs that I’m hoping to nail (tour guide, standardized patient, more cater-waiter work, etc). I’ve been there for almost 9 years, getting more and more unexpendable with each year. I was really happy with my decision to leave and now listening to this I’m getting scared again! haha. I think leaving at least for a couple of months is a good choice for me if only to reset my relationship with them where they don’t EXPECT me to be always available (which has often been at the expense of me going on auditions), and then come back in a more freelance capacity. We’ll see! I’ve committed to taking this plunge, with the belief that more opportunities to audition will lead to more bookings, but I don’t want to be stupid financially either seeing that neither my husband or I are financially stable (even WITH this job. haha). JUST blabbin’ my vent here. Thanks, guys! I WILL JOURNAL THE SHIT OUTTA THIS.
Yay! So glad you’re on the journal path with this! Let me suggest you consider treating this like maternity leave. You set them up with systems that make you less indispensable because you know you’re going to be less available, but you prep them for your return (but at a lighter load) while you’re putting all this infrastructure in place.
Years after this master class was recorded, I’ve experienced a few cycles of SMFA Ninja Angels (that’s what we call Team Cricket Feet — and it makes Keith our Bosley, of course) needing to leave the team over time. The best version of this thing you’re describing happened late December 2014, when my lead assistant went from being in-house every week to fully virtual and really only available nights, lunch breaks (from her gaming job), and weekends. It was a jarring shift, of course, but she made it really awesome for me by prepping me with, “Here’s what I’ll still be able to do fully…” followed by, “Here’s what I’ll be able to do but only on nights, lunch breaks, and weekends,” and, “Here’s what I’ll no longer be able to do.”
That gave me a starting point for what we would need to get covered and, ultimately, as the creator of this business, I should be able to (and I am able to) do EVERY job anyone on the team has (because I have HAD every job anyone on the team has been assigned). Shifting gears is nothing terrifying if you’re properly prepped for weathering it.
Resetting your relationship with this gig? GREAT idea. Really treat it like prepping for maternity leave and then a very scaled-back version of a return. That way they don’t have to live without you 100% but you’re no longer CRUCIAL to their success! That way you can build your own!! <3
I’m in the same boat, Liz.
My job has some great pros, but some really bad cons for where I want to go.
I’ve been trying to leave for a year, but haven’t yet found anything better.
I think I’m going to switch up my goal a bit and start moving towards finding work doing several different freelance things, mostly virtual so my income and my job are not tied to a location.
I will soon be diving into all the goodies for creating/setting up passive and virtual income streams so I can get out of shift work once and for all.
I’ll be sure to get a fire lit under me for the passive income related goodies in the queue for The SMFA Vault so you have more goodies to dig into in that territory specifically!
Thank You!!
YOU GUYS!!!! I keep commenting and then forgetting I commented and never checking back!
Your suggestions are super great, Bonnie! I love the “maternity leave” concept (I am! I’m taking care of my “baby” career!) Chandra, I’m gonna look into this virtual stuff, too. SOUNDS SO FUTURISTIC! haha
I made a point of letting my job know that I was leaving months early, sort because they asked, but also because I wanted to; I’VE suffered from the 2-week-notice shocker of SO MANY KEY EMPLOYEES (my bosses!) at this school leaving each year that I know how shitty and overwhelming it is to not have time to plan the shift. Initially I was going to offer to train a new person (DAMN I’m nice! haha), but HR told me they’re not hiring anyone else to fill my role! So nuts.
Anyway, I’m going to share with them everything I do, figure out how to split up/reallocate tasks and then figure out exactly what times I can be there starting later in the fall (with time flexibiliy) and what specific tasks I can help with. Being everyone’s helper at all times has become too much, and if anyone big quits last minute, I don’t want to be pulled into the vortex again during some good September auditioning time! I WILL MAKE THIS WORK! The bridges I was STARTING to burn because I was “caring too much” (shout out to Keith!) and letting my frustrations become visible negative energy, I have REPAIRED because there’s just no point in going to work mad. YAY!
Attagirl!