Someone very close to me received some exciting news this past week. She’s been turning up for what she loves day after day for many years.
She received a call letting her know she’d landed a role acting in a new TV series which will begin shooting in a few weeks.
Sometimes success in the film and TV industry can feel like trying to capture lightning in a bottle.
It doesn’t happen often, the odds are tremendously out of your favour most of the time, and even when the storm clouds are overhead, conditions change fast.
But you can only capture that lightning if you’re in the right place, waiting, with a bottle, ready for it.
Her ‘break’ is the result of knowing what she loves, having a plan and then relentlessly turning up for it, day after day, year after year.
It’s no glamorous road paved with gold.
Turning up for what you love doesn’t make the sacrifices, the rejection, the failure any easier. But it does make them worth it.
Turning up for what you love builds resilience.
When you turn up for these things, there is no ‘hoping’ it works. What you do becomes another small contribution to your purpose.
Turning up fortifies what you know you have inside you.
It doesn’t matter what others think, because they can’t see your plan.
It demands you are very certain that you love this pursuit, and that you would spend your time, your life even, doing it even if the lightning didn’t strike when you wanted, even if there was no lucky break.
Turning up means you’re willing to accept the suffering, but not let it be your master.
You are focused on chasing lightning, which is really cool, and every failed experiment, audition, pitch or idea, is bringing you one step closer to capturing it.
