Even if you aren’t one for New Year resolutions–whose resolutions legitimately last longer than two weeks?–you should be one for setting reasonable acting goals for each upcoming year.
Acting goals are critical to your career because it is so very easy to become lazy, discouraged, and jaded in the entertainment industry. It is also easy to see only your big dreams, get impatient, attempt to advance too far too quickly, and find that you missed important steps along the way that will help you to sustain a career–and not fall flat on your face.
Setting goals that happily blend reality with your dreams is a way to keep on track and be certain you get to where you want to go! Break the year into months-long increments, and set goals for each set. Extend past a year if you wish to do so. The following are examples for actors at two different points in their careers:
1 month: a) go on two auditions and update acting resume
b) be auditioning for paid roles once a month and learn a new non-acting-related skill (martial arts, horseback riding, tennis, etc.)
2 months: a) land one audition and train in a new acting skill
b)
3 months: a) have gone on two auditions and attended one networking event
b)
6 months: a) have secured a local, SAG-AFTRA associated acting agent, updated your resume, and booked new head shots
b)
10 months: a) have secured at least one paid job and
b)
12 months: a) be consistently auditioning three times per month (paid or unpaid), and have landed a combined total of five roles
b)
18 months: a) be researching agents in LA, perfecting your resume, and training when you are not in a production or filming
b)
2 years: a) have an agent, apartment, and job set up in LA and be moving over there
b)
