Take a Break
So it's Easter, and whether we like it or not, the calendar is dictating to us that we take a break. A four day weekend stretching out for us to enjoy our leisure.
Not good if you're already enjoying enforced leisure in the form of unemployment. Then it's just two extra days when the phone is unlikely to ring. In the first period of unemployment after leaving college about eight months into my career I had a telephone installed in the bedsit that I still occupied from my student days. Cream, with a shiny dial (Yes, I am that old!), it stood by the bed , and became a huge focus for me during my first period of unemployment. Every day I would will it to ring. And of course on Sundays and holidays, there was little chance that even if it did, it would lead to work.
These days our careers are such more twenty four hour affairs. Even today, Easter Sunday, I've had a phone call from a TV director regarding a current project. E mail, phone calls and texts can get to us at any time of day or night. We can work on our career even when the world has dictated a public holiday shut down. Internet research, sending e mails out, finding out what is going on. A quiet day can be turned into a very productive period indeed. Especially if it also means that you are away from whatever your second job is that allows you to act.
And yet taking a break from things is incredibly important. A chance to stand back and see how things are going. Space free from the worries of not working. For years I never booked a holiday. I knew the minute I did, something would turn up. Staying at home for the two weeks I could have been away, I was often disappointed that nothing did turn up. I know now that if a job had turned up during the two-week I stayed at home, that would have been breaking what is known as "Sods Law".
I have now passed the point of counting how many jobs I have said no to because I've been on holiday. These days, a holiday is part of the strict regime that I now allow myself for my own self-esteem and dignity, and to enable me to put my partner first above my career.
It's not easy, and every time my agent rings with an availability check for a job that I'm not going to be able to do because of our holiday booking, I can still be a little frustrated and annoyed. Yet funnily enough, when I get back from holiday, I always feel refreshed and ready to renew the day-to-day push for work and money.
Recently a good friend of mine wrote in her blog how she and her husband had curtailed what sounded like a fabulous holiday because they were both on a pencil for jobs. Of course, having come back early, neither job materialised, and though they had very happy memories of the time they had been away, they were tinged with regret that they could have been away for longer.
Work is important. Whether it's the part of the job where someone is employing you, or whether it's the possibly more prominent part of the job where you are seeking employment. Both of these have to be tackled 100% with enthusiasm, professionalism, and focus. But one has to acknowledge that we all need a break from anything we do 100%.
Whether it's just a trip up to Yorkshire to see parents, a trip to the coast to see friends, or a full-blown two weeks Thomson à la carte package to a hot and luxurious clime, it is something that should be part of every working actor's year. Recharge, renew, review and re-engage. And that's the way to ensure that your career is the long run that you want it to be.
Not good if you're already enjoying enforced leisure in the form of unemployment. Then it's just two extra days when the phone is unlikely to ring. In the first period of unemployment after leaving college about eight months into my career I had a telephone installed in the bedsit that I still occupied from my student days. Cream, with a shiny dial (Yes, I am that old!), it stood by the bed , and became a huge focus for me during my first period of unemployment. Every day I would will it to ring. And of course on Sundays and holidays, there was little chance that even if it did, it would lead to work.
These days our careers are such more twenty four hour affairs. Even today, Easter Sunday, I've had a phone call from a TV director regarding a current project. E mail, phone calls and texts can get to us at any time of day or night. We can work on our career even when the world has dictated a public holiday shut down. Internet research, sending e mails out, finding out what is going on. A quiet day can be turned into a very productive period indeed. Especially if it also means that you are away from whatever your second job is that allows you to act.
And yet taking a break from things is incredibly important. A chance to stand back and see how things are going. Space free from the worries of not working. For years I never booked a holiday. I knew the minute I did, something would turn up. Staying at home for the two weeks I could have been away, I was often disappointed that nothing did turn up. I know now that if a job had turned up during the two-week I stayed at home, that would have been breaking what is known as "Sods Law".
I have now passed the point of counting how many jobs I have said no to because I've been on holiday. These days, a holiday is part of the strict regime that I now allow myself for my own self-esteem and dignity, and to enable me to put my partner first above my career.
It's not easy, and every time my agent rings with an availability check for a job that I'm not going to be able to do because of our holiday booking, I can still be a little frustrated and annoyed. Yet funnily enough, when I get back from holiday, I always feel refreshed and ready to renew the day-to-day push for work and money.
Recently a good friend of mine wrote in her blog how she and her husband had curtailed what sounded like a fabulous holiday because they were both on a pencil for jobs. Of course, having come back early, neither job materialised, and though they had very happy memories of the time they had been away, they were tinged with regret that they could have been away for longer.
Work is important. Whether it's the part of the job where someone is employing you, or whether it's the possibly more prominent part of the job where you are seeking employment. Both of these have to be tackled 100% with enthusiasm, professionalism, and focus. But one has to acknowledge that we all need a break from anything we do 100%.
Whether it's just a trip up to Yorkshire to see parents, a trip to the coast to see friends, or a full-blown two weeks Thomson à la carte package to a hot and luxurious clime, it is something that should be part of every working actor's year. Recharge, renew, review and re-engage. And that's the way to ensure that your career is the long run that you want it to be.
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