Yeah, I said it.

Many people say they wanna get in the game, “I just want to act” they say, yet they will spend most of their days doing something else. I’m not saying that you need to dedicate every second of you life to acting–I mean, most of us still need to work a second job, or have a family to care for. But you shouldn’t be waiting for an audition before you do any sort of prep work.

And yes, going to a weekly class is good, but that does not equate to “working actor” unless you’re doing your homework every night. Now, you might be thinking, “but what is there to do if I don’t have an audition or a booking?”

Here are 5 things you should be doing everyday to help hone your craft:

1. Feed your mind. Read at least 10 pages of a book that empowers you and opens your mind. Acting is a mindset game, so get that mindset good and strong.
   
2. Meditate. It’s not just for hippies and monks anymore. EVERYONE should be taking a few minutes a day to meditate. There are so many free apps out there now to help you along. I personally love guided meditations. Two free apps that come highly recommended are Headspace & Soulvana, Also, check out Wendy Braun’s Actor Inspiration for Actor specific meditations.
   
3. Work your body. Whether you’re a leading lady or a character actor–you need to have stamina. Days on set can be quick, or they can drag on and on. You need to be able to handle it all. That doesn’t mean you need to run a marathon, but go for a walk, jump on a trampoline, do some stretching.
   
4. Get creative! Tiktoc, Reels, Facebook, podcasts & blogs–I don’t mean consume them, CREATE THEM! Don’t be the one scrolling through social media just seeing what others are posting. Use it as inspiration, sure–but you should be excited about creating your own content and putting it out for the world to see. And who knows–the right casting director might just see something they like and bring you in for an audition.
   
5. Make genuine connections and keep them. You are the sum of the people you surround yourself with. So if you spend most of your days with a 5 & 7 year-old like me–You need to be connecting with other people–mainly other working actors. And you might think that that is near impossible during the Covid times, but I have met and made so many new friends during this time, because I’ve put myself out there and opened myself up to new conversations with people I’ve never met.
   
   That means joining Facebook groups directed at actors, saying yes to script reading groups, commenting on other people’s posts in a genuine way, reaching out to people you’ve never met to ask questions–Heck, ask them to join you in a live to have a conversation about the industry! I’ve done that twice by-the-way and both times were great conversations that lasted over an hour–but I guess I’m a chatty one.

And if you’re already doing those things, that’s FANTASTIC. Add working on accents (general American is most commonly used), taking workshops and webinars, reading scripts on your own, pick a scene from a movie/show that you’d love to be cast in and just do a self-tape, look for local monologue/scene slams to participate in, make a list of gear you’d like to add to improve your self-tapes, subscribe to coach’s blogs to get daily/weekly inspiration.

My point is, if you want acting to be a full-time job, you need to work at it on a full-time basis.