Look back for inspiration, look at the present for realization, look ahead for motivation.
To recap this "frustrated with your career" series of posts, in Part 1, I said frustration is good because it's a sign of wanting to grow. To combat frustration, look at how far you've come and give yourself credit. Then, in Part 2, I said you need to be realistic about how much time you've been in the business, and more importantly, how much time you've PUT into the business, reminding you that 52 weekends of 5 minute sets is only 8.5 hours of stage time.
Now it's time to talk about how to powerfully move forward with your comedy career.
Begin to ask yourself powerful questions. When I say powerful, I mean questions that will move you forward. Your brain is always looking to answer questions, but it's usually negative ones. You know this when you lie awake at night, staring at the ceiling in the dark. All sorts of negative questions about your future come out.
Experts say your brain is hardwired to find answers. The trick is to control the questions, so the brain goes after the answers you want. If you don't consciously ask forward minded, positive, powerful questions, your default will be questions about surviving a myriad of potential negative outcomes. You can usually tell a question is negative when it starts with a "What if...?". We typically don't ask what if something really good happens to us, we usually ask what if something goes wrong. It's how we're programmed.
So, change your programming. Make your brain focus on finding the answers to questions about what you want, where you want to go, what will success be like; things like that.
Next you want to make some goals, short term and long term. You may think you have goals, however, it's important to know that goals not written down are simply pipe dreams, so you have to commit them to paper. Also, make sure you have target dates written, as well. We'll discuss that in depth later in this post.
There are many ways to create goals, you need to pick the way(s) that resonates with you.
Think BIG and work backwards - I mentioned in a previous post that I had coached business people. Some of the training I received along the way was from Accomplishment Coaching. In their training, I learned one way to make (and achieve) goals is to work backwards from your ultimate goal, creating milestones (shorter term goals) along the way.
John F. Kennedy forced NASA to do this when he declared the U.S. would be on the moon before the end of the 1960's. Suddenly, NASA, who had just dealt with getting someone to orbit the Earth, had an ultimate goal of putting astronauts on the moon; something they hadn't been planning for and which would require a lunar landing module, landing and taking off again, etc., all things they didn't have to deal with just sending a rocket into orbit.
In other words, your ultimate goal might be to star in a movie. However, you're currently not an actor, you don't have a SAG card, you live in Nebraska, and nobody knows who you are; you have no clue how it would all come about.
Working backwards from there, though, you might have easier to attain goals like: simply having a part in a movie, getting your own HBO special, being on a TV comedy showcase, doing a set on a late night talk show, moving to NYC or LA, playing Vegas and/or Atlantic City, getting an agent, headlining, featuring, MCing, working consistently, and getting paid gigs.
One doesn't necessarily equal the other, and we would all love it if it was as simple as I wrote it. But, doesn't it seem more attainable with the smaller steps along the way? Suddenly, there's at least the semblance of a pathway towards starring in a movie.
Year end letter - One mentor taught me to write a year end letter to someone as if the events had already happened. In other words, if today is April 13, 2014, my letter, written today, would be from the perspective of December 31, 2014 and I would be recounting all of my 2014 goals as if they already happened. Very powerful. It's a way of calling your shots, like Babe Ruth did with his famous home run.
*In my real estate days, one year I wrote the letter in January and forgot about it. I didn't see it again until October (buried in my desk, not the best use of the letter). To my surprise, I had accomplished 80% of the goals stated in the letter and was more than half way to accomplishing many of the other goals. I cannot stress the power of this method enough.
Daily journal - On more than one occasion, I have written in a daily journal. Every single day I would write out my short and long term goals. It's very interesting to see my goals change over time, as I've either achieved them, changed them, and/or made newer and larger goals.
Dream board or dream book - A dream board or a dream book is another great way to keep your goals in front of you and alive. Cut pictures from magazines, etc. of the things you want to be, do and have, and make a book or collage.
Index card -Write your top three to five goals on a 3x5 index card and put it in your pants pocket, or purse; somewhere you'll reach into a few times a day and come across the card.
Future free writing - When you are free from distractions, spend a good 10-15 minutes writing what your life will be like in 5 or 10 years. Don't censor yourself, just free write the things you'd like to achieve, be, do and have. Get very specific and descriptive. Once you're done, pick the top five or ten items that really get you juiced up.
**There's an extra killer mind blowing trick to this that I don't want to give away because it will lessen the impact if you know it before you try the exercise. If you choose to do this method for your goals, just email me at comedyscott@gmail.com when you're finished, and I'll tell you the trick.
White board - I have a couple of those dry erase white boards on the wall of my home office. You can get them at Staples, or anywhere that sells office supplies. I have one for a business I run, and another specifically for comedy.
On the comedy white board, I have a current list of all my bookings, as a backup to my website and phone calendar schedule, and I have a list of my goals. It could be clubs I'd like to play, things I'd like to achieve, etc. Anytime I hit a goal, I check it off on the board.
Are your goals SMART?
The best way to write goals is to use the S.M.A.R.T. format. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely. There are other variations for some of the letters in the acronym, but you get the point.
Wanting to lose weight, as an example, is not specific. Saying you want to lose 20lbs makes it specific and measurable, but there is no time frame.
So, to have a SMART goal, you would need to say something like you want to lose 20lbs within three months from today. Now, if you said you wanted to lose 20lbs in three days, that's not really achievable. Even if it technically is possible (if you spent 72 hours in a sauna, maybe), it's not something that you probably feel is achievable, and it's not something you would likely be willing to do what it takes to achieve.
In other words, let's take the above movie goal and say you wanted to star in a movie within the next three months. Unless you already knew a movie star or producer who could help you, and were moving out to Hollywood yesterday, you likely have no shot at that happening. So, it probably wouldn't be Achievable, and it most likely wouldn't seem Realistic in the Time you set.
Let's take a simpler comedy goal; you want to have 60 minutes of killer material in one year's time. What would you need to do to achieve that goal? How much and how often would you need to write material? How often would you need to get on stage? How many open mics would you need to do to get your bits ready for your set?
Do you see how just setting a goal creates all sorts of questions you need to answer that all focus on achieving that goal?
So, gentle reader, if you're serious about your comedy career (or really, any career), before you do anything else you should come up with at least five to ten SMART goals, and write them down. Don't go on Facebook, don't go to the bathroom. Okay, if you really have to go potty, go first. If you plan to be in there a while, you can just bring a notebook in with you and write your goals. The point is write your goals as soon as possible.
For a more in depth look into goal writing, check out business and sales training guru Brian Tracy's book "Goals!" The link takes you to his site, and if you give him your email you'll get the e-book version of "Goals!" for FREE.
In Part 4, I'll tell you what to do with your goals so you have the best chance of achieving them.
Click here for Part 4: Now What?
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