You Can Change Your Life

When I first met Lucy she had been trying to secure a place at Drama School for at least 3 years. She was aware she needed to network more and wanted to exude a more confident persona.

I could tell from first meeting Lucy that she was an extremely creative person who was in danger of losing hope, as things didn’t seem to be “going her way”. Lucy was like a confused actor in the middle of a vast stage unsure of which stage exit to take next. Her spotlight had been dimmed and she seriously needed to crank it up to full beam.

The danger for all of us is that when we don’t seem to be making any progress we can be lured into giving up on the one thing that makes us feel alive – our true destiny.

It was crucial at this point for Lucy to see herself as deserving of the life she wanted, congratulate herself on the progress she had already made and equally as important to view all her options in glorious techni-colour and to eliminate that “need” for a place at Drama School!

What’s not Working?

The first task for Lucy was to identify what wasn’t working for her in her life as it was. She was employed in a stultifying box-office job merely to get by, but by getting by I could see that her creative energy was being zapped and there was little or no time left to feel creative or enthusiastic about yet another round of Drama School auditions. She was also living in an environment which didn’t lend itself to her fulfilling her true potential.

Coaching Lucy was a pleasure even though at the onset it was difficult for her to imagine her dream becoming a reality so soon. She had just received another “rejection” from one of her chosen Drama Schools so in our first couple of sessions we quickly got to work on all the options available to Lucy to fulfil her dream as an actor.

One of these options was to stage her own production at a local fringe theatre as a showcase for her talent and Lucy set about this task with the vigour and unequivocal determination akin to an actor preparing for a new role.

If ever there was vital evidence needed of Lucy’s passion and drive to succeed it was evident from the manner in which she tackled this task. I also asked Lucy at this stage to look into the future and describe her ideal life. She described herself living in her own flat, soaking in her own bath, reading scripts and going to rehearsals. Bliss!

Taking action, taking responsibility, taking risks

I set about coaching Lucy to build her confidence which would enable her to lessen the hold her job and home had on her, thus enabling her to seriously get a plan in action to re-arrange her life to make it work for her. I knew instantly the priority for Lucy was to move house.

Through moving into her own space, she could devote as much time as she wanted to practicing audition speeches, indulging in voice warm-ups and rehearsing songs with out having to compromise to fit in with someone else’s living arrangements – in other words to truly be an actor she had to live as an actor and this meant taking action, taking responsibility, taking risks.

Lucy longed for this freedom and knew that this would give her the motivation she needed to catapult her to the next step – leaving her job and finding something much more suitable and rewarding for someone with her outgoing and delightful personality – the stage was set, but serious edits had to made to come up with the finished script of Lucy’s ideal life!

Opening Doors

As Lucy’s confidence grew so too did her motivation. As she dealt with the challenges of possibly staging a play, moving house and leaving her job, which, was her sole means of income, she began to take the courage to effortlessly open doors for herself and very soon after the door she had always dreamt of opening finally opened and she was offered a place at “The Poor School”.

Was she ready to walk through that door? Absolutely. Having been to Drama School myself, by this stage I had coached Lucy to realise what an asset she would be to the class and what strengths she could bring with her. I had coached her to bring a different energy and attitude to her auditions.

The coaching sessions that followed therefore focused on how Lucy could create a way to finance her time at Drama School. As an exercise I asked Lucy to draw up a list of people in the industry she’d love to work with when she graduated.

Through writing this list we discovered that Lucy wanted to work with some high profile people so the next challenge was to make sure Lucy was ready for this and believed she was deserving of it. I set Lucy a goal to contact every single upmarket restaurant in London renowned for its celebrity clientele, and offer her services as a Hostess, ‘meeter and greeter’.

So, if you happen to be dining at London’s Nobu restaurant on Park Lane, you’ll met Lucy!

Lucy’s dedication, commitment, and willingness to change what wasn’t working for her has paid off. She has now created her dream life and is comfortably settled in her new studio apartment, with a bath for her to enjoy reading her scripts, serving customers such as Woody Allen by day (not bad for someone who was nervous about networking!) and excitedly waiting to begin her studies in October.

I feel absolutely privileged to be one of Lucy’s patrons having been a part of her journey I am excited by the innovative way she has approached her fund-raising for her course fees.

“Lights, camera, action…”!!!!!