Why set goals?
If you want 2025 to feel successful, you need to set achievable goals.
With achievable goals, you can create and execute a plan. You’ll know how to spend your time, money, and attention. You’ll have linear, stackable progress meaning your work and wins will build on each other.
Without achievable goals, there is no plan. You’ll get stuck or anxious constantly comparing options and splitting your time. Your progress will be spread in different directions making it difficult to see results from any of it.
I can’t guarantee you’ll achieve your goal. But that’s actually not the point. Because I can guarantee you will see progress towards your goal which will lead you to something close, something different but wonderful, or straight to the promised land.
Goal Setting Strategy: SMART Goals
Most folks struggle with making good, achievable goals because they confuse them for Wish Lists.
You know you have a wish list if your goals for the year are a bunch of Exciting Results, especially Excising Results You Haven’t Achieved Before. It’s common for a client to share a list of goals that includes signing with a theatrical rep, signing with commercial rep, booking 2 commercials, booking 3 theatrical jobs, and writing their first screenplay.
I don’t have any problem wanting all of those things. But there’s no plan or strategy that can contain all of that at once. There’s no sense of what matters most. And most importantly, they have no control over any of it.
To avoid that problem I like SMART GOALS. It’s an acronym you can use you to make sure your goals are going to set you up for success.
S —> SPECIFIC
This is the most important - make your goal specific. Consider the difference between: “Book a job” vs “Book a supporting, comedic role in a non-union feature film.”
The 2nd goal gives me a to-do list. Get good headshots and tape for that type of role/project. Watch and research recent non-union comedic features that have had festival runs. Connect with CD’s and filmmakers who work in that genre. Bring that type of material in to class. Tell my team that I want to focus on that type of work. Etc.
Specific goals create to-do lists.
M —> MEASURABLE
Your goal must be measurable. If you’re goal is to “Improve my self-taping skills” then how many self-tapes are you churning out per month (or day/week/year). If you can’t measure it, it’s not a good goal yet.
If you’re newer to the business OR your goal is a big leap forward that you haven’t achieved before, I highly recommend leaning into this concept.
Let’s say your goal is to “Book at least 1 Recurring Role on a Union Series” but you’ve never booked a recurring before. Don’t make the goal to book the gig since you have no control and no track record yet. It can easily turn into shame that way. Instead, make the goals:
• Tape three excellent auditions for recurring roles every week. (3)
• Take Working Actors Intensive at The Norris Studio (or another class anywhere!) to level up my craft and career. (1)
• Watch 4 hrs of TV every week looking for recurring roles that fit my casting currently airing on TV. (4)
• Add 3 new headshot and 3 new self-tapes to Actors Access that, in my opinion, prove I’m ready for that work. (6)
But if you have a track record for your Goals, you can measure in results. An actor who’s booked 5 National Commercials every year for the past three years can use that as a goal because the infrastructure is already in place to make it happen.
A —> ACCOUNTABLE
The primary difference between a Goal and a Wish is being accountable to it. A dream usually doesn’t happen. A goal is supposed to happen. The intention difference between those two thoughts is staggering.
I recommend being Accountable to someone else. Further, I recommend not using family members or romantic partners but instead buddying up with your actor friends. Create weekly or monthly check-ins with each other over coffee or Zoom. It can be fun!
The point is accountability, not shame. You don’t want a partner who will beat you up for not getting it done. You want one who will coach you up and support you during the hard times and celebrate you during the good times.
R —> REALISTIC
Goals should be ambitious and exciting, but they also need to be realistic. If you only have a couple Guest Stars on your resume, it’s not realistic to make your goal Win An Oscar. But that same actor could make their goal about booking Film roles instead of Television, or to connect with a certain number of film-focused CDs.
T —> TIMEBOUND
It’s got to have a deadline. Otherwise we’re back in Wish land. This includes the earlier principles as a deadline is a specific, measurable way to be realistically accountable. But again, it’s not to create shame if you don’t hit the mark. It’s to give you a sense of progress, whether your current plan is working, and whether your business needs to make a change.