![Milestones - Setting and Achieving Goals - An Actors Story_550 [i_1666] Milestones - Setting and Achieving Goals - An Actors Story_550](http://www.actorhub.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/Milestones-Setting-and-Achieving-Goals-An-Actors-Story_550.jpg)
Photo Credit: Peter H. Dreyer via cc
Josh McHugh is an actor living and working in Los Angeles.
He writes a blog about “The trials, musings and shenanigans of a working actor…” – Josh McHugh, He Acts
His writing is thoughtful, insightful and we are delighted to be sharing it here on Actor Hub.
He writes a blog about “The trials, musings and shenanigans of a working actor…” – Josh McHugh, He Acts
His writing is thoughtful, insightful and we are delighted to be sharing it here on Actor Hub.
Milestones.
Every career has them.
We measure progress in our chosen path by them. They are personal but significant. At least to us, anyway.
Mine was a big one. I had made a promise to myself, about one year ago, that I would have a TV credit for a speaking tole to my name by year’s end. I had no idea how I would achieve it. It didn’t matter. It was gonna happen.
Stay focused, go after your dreams and keep moving toward your goals.
Postcards mailed.
Resumes and head shots stamped and sent out into the wilderness.
Connections via inter-webs made.
…crickets…
The silence was deafening.
Goals are a dangerous thing once uttered. They become sort of cosmic law. If you fail to achieve them, the self-loathing can be exquisite.
I had all but given up hope.
Then, through no fault of my own, it happened.
A friend of mine, a casting director, called me out of the blue. I had taken a master class under his instruction nearly two years before. As it happens, his daughter goes to the same school as my son. We bump into each other a number of times a week.
I am heavily involved in the school. A card-carrying member of the board of the school’s PTA. As such, and being largely left to my own designs most days, I am on campus A LOT. If there is a school function or a fundraiser involved, chances are better than average I will be there.
Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe, and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success.
As it so happens, one particular event, I was helping run the thing. Hustling to and fro, walkie-talkie at my hip, ear piece. The works. In this frenzy of activity, who should I run into?
Yup.
My mentor.
He points at me and says “You’re a cop.” This is not unusual coming from a man who casts people for all manner of TV role any given day.
We exchange howdies and laughs and continue with our days.
Not one week later I get a call from him asking what my union status was. He has an under-five that I would be perfect for that very Friday. In TV parlance, “Under-five” refers to any role that has five spoken lines or less. Turns out, I would have fewer than five.
I would have one.
It was all I needed.
It was all mine.
The moral of my story?
Goals are scary, but they also provide a focus for your energy. Once you put that energy out there, success can manifest in any number of exciting and unforeseen ways.
*My particular milestone airs December 23rd at 2 pm on ABC’s “General Hospital”.
What next, cosmos?
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