Making Tomorrow A Better Today

How do we define success? And, more importantly, what does it take to achieve it? For actors, those answers might be “Being a series regular on a night-time drama” and “Consistently honing my craft and auditioning regularly”. For a photographer, they might be “Shooting a cover for National Geographic” (or Cosmopolitan, depending on preference), and “Constantly shooting in different conditions to increase my skill”. It will differ from person to person, and from art form to art form, but I want to give you one key to what it takes that applies across the board, be it art, business, finance or sport:

“The secret to you success is determined by your daily agenda… by the daily decisions I make, and the daily disciplines I practice” – Dr John C. Maxwell

I heard that statement in a lesson a few years ago, and it is something that has always stuck with me, because I fundamentally believe that it is true. Another way of saying it is that, if what and where I am today is a direct result of my previous actions, what I am tomorrow depends on what I do today. The problem is, most people underestimate what they can do today, and over estimate what they can do tomorrow.

Now, if you think about this for a minute, you will see how true it is.  You constantly hear “I’ll do it tomorrow”. I know I say that, and then, when it doesn’t happen tomorrow, it becomes “the next day”… then the next… then the next, until either we hit a crisis and do it at the expense of something else, or we just never quite get around to it.

Taking acting as an example: how can you book any jobs if you don’t audition? And how can you audition if casting directors aren’t seeing your headshot? And how are they seeing your headshot unless it is being put in front of them? So how many submissions are you or your agent making today? How many workshops are you attending today? What networking are you doing today? What are you doing today to hone your skill so that, when the opportunity arises, you perform to the best of your abilities? But maybe making that phone call to an agent is uncomfortable, so you put it of to tomorrow, and traffic is really bad tonight, so that networking event can wait… you get the picture.

To be continued...