#67: That Faraway Shore's Looking Near Again
Tuesday 10/1/24
LOCK IN Q4
It’s the final 3 months of the year. Quarter 4. In business, Q4. Anything can happen. Your whole year can change in 12 weeks.
When I worked in retail, Q4 was “game time”. The whole year of work up to that point was to prep for game time. The other 40 weeks were prep & practice for what was to come so we could “crush” q4. In retail, we were looking forward to Black Friday and all the holiday shopping in December. In NYC, the week between Christmas and New Years/into the first week of January, was sometimes busier than any other week of the year. We could make a months worth of money in a day. It was wild.
While “game time” for actors is audition season which is really late Jan-early March, or Q1, the rules are the same.
It’s probably safe to assume that however you’d behaved this whole year will be how you behave when it matters. If you have a process to look for auditions, if you have your physical health in check, if you have routine… whatever you have when it is “slow” is what you will have when it’s “busy”.
OR, on the flip side - have you not even tried to go to an audition in 2 months? Have you let work take over your life? Have you not tried new material? Have you not taken class or make new relationships? If you haven’t, you won’t when the season comes.
All this to say, you have 12 weeks til January. Make YOUR Q4 valuable. It takes 30 days to build a habit which means you can stack multiple new habits or behaviors before the audition season begins.
Some habits/behaviors I’ll continuing or implementing in Q4:
Daily voice function - straw therapy
80+ oz water
Daily 10k+ steps or other cardio
Strength train 3-4x a week
Take 1 class (longer term - 3-4 weeks or so if not longer)
Meet with accompanist friend to run all cuts live
11:45 Mon-Fri check for auditions
Get 2 new or redone cuts filmed
Weekly vocal coaching
Role Prep 1/month: Oct Heidi Hansen, Nov Aunt Deb (kimberly akimbo), Dec review Kinky Boots Pat/Trish material and ensemble vocals
As you can see not all 10 are theatre specific, only about half are. But the other items help me stay controlled, focused, and energized.
High achievement takes place in a framework of high expectations.
Dreams Don’t Die
Julie