When you’ve been doing any job for a while–even one that you love, it can get lacklustre. Now, I LOVE acting, but everyone can feel stuck sometimes.

When you’re just starting out on your journey, it can be really easy to feel fired up.

“I booked my first commercial!”
“I got my first major network audition!”
“I got an agent!”

But after a while, it can feel like the same old grind–You’ve achieved the goals you set up for yourself, you’re a real-life “professional actor”. Now what?

There’s an amazing quote I love from the movie Soul:

“I heard this story about a fish. He swims up to this older fish and says, “I’m trying to find this thing they call the ocean.” “The ocean?” says the older fish. “That’s what you’re in right now.” “This?” says the young fish. “This is water. What I want is the ocean.”

It’s so powerful, because we always think that if we just reach that next thing, our life will somehow suddenly change. But that is rarely the case. Even the biggest high can get mundane after a while. So the question is, once you’re in a comfortable spot in your career, how do you reignite the passion for your job?

Sure, you can always set bigger goals, larger roles, bigger budget movies, more money–but this can easily lead you places where you didn’t intend to go and chasing things that you may not even want. What you need to do is go back to your WHY.

Why did you want to become an actor?

Or anything else for that matter. Getting back to the reason why you wanted to become a parent, a partner, a CEO or a pianist–that’s what’s going to reignite that passion again, and set you on course for your next goal.

So often we can buy into someone else’s goals–Like keeping up with the Jones’. It’s easy to set money goals–but if you weren’t in it for the money to begin with, reaching those goals won’t satisfy you.

As an actor, it can be hard to pinpoint your why. I know it was for me. Is it vanity? Am I just an attention seeker? Am I in it for the fame and fortune?

But when I really focus and think about it, it’s about story-telling, making someone smile when they’re down, or making them empathize with someone they may never have thought twice about. Showing my kids that if you love what you do, you can make a living off of it. That some things are worth working two/three jobs for. That a marriage is about taking care and supporting each other’s dreams. That you really can have it all–a dream job and a dream home life.

So, what’s your why?