Reflection Friday

Well, we've almost reached the weekend, the meaning of which has changed drastically for me over the past several years. In decades past, the weekend was "downtime," the "play" in my ongoing pursuit of work-life balance. It would start off with a weekly ice hockey game every Friday night with a group of equally stressed out vet school students and faculty (I'd been invited to skate with this group through a friend). Saturday would find me often on an outdoor adventure, hiking, biking, running, or skydiving, followed by dinner out and a movie. Sunday would be the day for relaxing and getting things done around the house in preparation for the upcoming work week.

Now? Well, as an actor and filmmaker, the days of the week pretty much all blur together in a wonderful meld of creativity. Writing, producing, auditioning, prepping for scenes, script analysis, and lots of shooting (in the independent film world) take place throughout the week and often extend through Saturday and Sunday. That's just the way it is, and quite honestly, I wouldn't have it any other way. The balance now is equally structured by the day, no longer by maintaining a 5-day on, 2-day off weekly schedule. And let me tell you, for me, that's the way to do it! The goal of ensuring I'm keeping an equilibrium is far easier to control when viewed by individual days.

So, what's this past week brought for me? It's certainly been a full week, filled with victories and a few set-backs (as is typical). Let's start with the set-backs. To be honest, the past several weeks have been a bit challenging in terms of staying focused and accomplishing all that I've intended and planned. This week continued that trend a little, although to a little lesser extent....so, we're heading in the right direction! On the acting front, found out I didn't get two roles, one for which I REALLY had my fingers crossed. That's part of the game as an actor...Onward! I'd also planned on getting a good 25 pages written in my latest screenplay, but have only managed to get 9 pages down as of this morning (although after finishing this blogpost, I have the next three hours blocked off for writing, so we'll see were I end up....).

But on the positive side, I received confirmation that I'd been cast in a lead role in an upcoming short film (preliminary news on that had come several weeks ago, but it was finalized this week). I was cast on short notice in another lead role in a separate short film that will take me out of town for two days next week. And a feature film director reached out with an offer of.a nice supporting role in his film, when another actor had to back out 10 days before production began. So, two short films and a feature this week....Woot woo!! And on the audition front, I will be filming my fifth self-taped audition request of the week by Sunday. So, that's fantastic, as well.

As mentioned, the screenwriting this week was a bit slow, but only as it relates to getting it all down on paper. The ideas were indeed flowing, thanks to a few longer runs, where much of my development thoughts are often solidified. I outlined out quite a bit, reworked problem areas (conceptually), and organized and problem solved the flow of the story. Now, it's simply the process of vomiting it all out into a full initial draft! I've also recently been working on an adaptation of a short story (written by another author) into a screenplay. The initial draft was completed about three weeks ago, and the original story author loved it, but we've been going back and forth since then about some minor tweaks. And I made the decision this week to have a virtual table read with the script, a useful step in ensuring the dialogue throughout makes sense. So, I'll be working today on getting casting call notices out to the various casting sites to start that process. It's always fun to be involved with casting any process, I've found, so that's something about which I'm excited.

So, that's been my week! Throw in a bit of production work (meeting with entertainment attorneys about a feature film I'm producing later this year) and plenty of networking with other industry professionals (Thanks, Clubhouse....if you're not on this app, you REALLY need to get on it!), and I've gotten a lot done. But has it been balanced? For the most part, I'd say that most of the days this week have been fairly good in that regard. So, JoDee (my wife) and I are heading out for a little wine tasting in a few hours to celebrate her afternoon off and her upcoming free weekend.

How's your week been? Overall, as you reflect back on it, have you kept the balance? Do you look back on the past 5-7 days as a successful part of your life or pursuit toward your goals? Or has this been one of those "off" weeks, when the best laid plans seemed to go awry and nothing you'd meant to accomplish came to fruition? Those happen...if they did for you this week, acknowledge it, be kind to yourself, and plan for greater success in the upcoming week or two. Then execute! That's my plan....Cheers to you and your journey!

Adventure awaits!!