Imagine you're sitting on your couch, eating cheese and crackers, and watching The Great British Bake Off. Your doorbell rings. Who could it be? You get up, brush the crumbs from your lap (because you used a paper towel instead of a plate) and you walk over to the door. When you open it, you see a handsome man in his 40s wearing a relatively expensive suit. He's holding a stack of papers, bound together by two brass brads. "I got your script," he says. "And it's terrific. I'd like to be your agent."
Groan.
Obviously, this is never going to happen. Well, you might use a paper towel when you really should have used a plate, but the rest of this is never going to happen. Why? First of all, because this is not how agents contact you. Secondly, and most importantly, you never sent Mr. Handsome Man your script in the first place!
No one is waiting for you. So why are you waiting for them?
The world will keep spinning, whether or not you show up. But your career won't happen until you show up. If you want to win the Lottery, you have to buy a ticket.
I was listening to the Mel Robbins Podcast episode the other day about procrastination. "I don't have a procrastination problem," I thought to myself. "This episode won't be useful to me. All I do is work, work, work." But the more I listened, the more I realized I do have a procrastination problem; just not the kind I thought I had.
I guess I always thought procrastination was about laziness. But according to the research that was discussed on the podcast, procrastination is actually about fear. What if I try this and fail at it? What if I can't do it? What if I'm no good?
I'll be honest- I haven't been working on my own scripts. "I'm too busy coaching," I tell myself. But the truth is there are moments of time that I could carve out for my own writing. But I don't. I do other tasks instead, because they're easier, and I know I can succeed at them. It's not that I don't want to write. I love writing! It's what I do! But I'm not doing it. And I think I'm not doing it because I'm afraid it'll be time wasted. "I won't sell this script." "No one will like it enough." "It probably won't be good anyway." Because if I knew my script would be a success, I would write it today. But I'm afraid of trying again.
What should I do about this? And if you're anything like me, then what should you do about this?
Stop being so fucking afraid! Do it anyway! Is a bear going to eat you? Will you fall into a volcano? No! Stop waiting.
Keep trying. Keep going.
Because all we should really fear (aside from bears and volcanos) is that one day we'll wake up super old, and realize we never tried.
It is not the critic who counts: not the person who points out how the strong person stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the person who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, who knows the great enthusiasms and devotions, who spends themselves in a worthy cause; who at best, knows the triumph of high achievement, and at worst, if they fail, at least they fail while daring greatly, so that they're place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.
Theodore Roosevelt