I get it. We all get it. There’s this moment at which we’re so freakin’ excited for the next project… but we’re under contract for another project. It’s the “shiny new thing” syndrome.

The shiny new thing holds all the promise for being a hit. It has none of the pain of having been harder work than you expected. It has no history, only future — bright, gorgeous, BETTER future in its potential. And you cannot wait to be a part of that future.

Being really excited about the shiny new thing is typical. And I’m not going to ask you to stop yourself from enjoying the thrill of what might be, each time a new role, a potential new agent or manager, a new craft class, a new play, a new production comes into your life. Enjoy that ride. Use that excitement to remind you why this career is so delicious.

But you have to stay excited about the “old boring thing” in your life to really make a difference in your level of success. Think about any other business. Let’s try real estate.

You just found out you’ve scored a new listing: the gorgeous house up the street that you were hoping would be yours to sell, when you first started covering the neighborhood. In your mind, you’re thinking about how you’ll stage it for the open house, you’re planning the layout of the one-sheet you’re going to create, you’re getting excited imagining the slideshow of the photos that will scroll across the fancy website you’ll feature for this house. You’re already spending the commission you’ll earn for doing such a good job at pricing and then selling this beautiful property.

But you have this other house you’ve had as a listing for months. It’s about to close, but you’re feeling DONE with it. You’d really like to have this chapter of your real estate career over, because it’s exhausting to keep showing this property. You’ve fallen out of love with how you staged it months ago. You’ve stopped bringing in as many fresh flowers for each open house. You haven’t updated the website or flyers since you first started showing this house — but the landscaping has changed and perhaps refreshing those photos could breathe new interest into this space. But you wouldn’t know, because you’re not going to bother trying. It looks like you have buyers ready now and you just want the paperwork done. You have to keep showing up. You have to be present. You have to find a way to treat this house and this experience as if you’re in love with it all, because the last thing you want is for the deal to fall through at this stage.

Here’s why I know the muscle for staying enthusiastic about your projects, your relationships, your roles, your career and all the work it requires is so very important: Your long-term enthusiasm will impact your success.

Regular readers know that a couple of years ago, I got addicted to pole dancing as my chosen form of exercise. Within just a few weeks of classes, I started getting all sorts of muscles I’d never even seen before. My body completely changed shape due to the type of work we were doing each week in classes. And then I had to take seven months off due to a bunch of surgical adventures that put me totally out of commission. I lost my pole bod.

The second I was cleared to go back to pole fitness, I was right back in the studio, certain I’d have as wonderful a transformation as I’d had the first time. Nope. Even though I’m back up to three classes per week and finally able to do all the tricks I was good at pre-surgery, I don’t have those gloriously defined abs. My arms don’t have the same tone. My thighs have not slimmed down like they had the first time.

That’s my body’s way of not being as excited about this way of living. It’s physiology. It’s muscle memory. I need to add a shiny new thing to my routine in order to get the same results I got the first time out. Most importantly, I cannot quit just because I don’t have the same thrill of celebrating such visible victories to keep me going when it gets tough.

When you work with the same crew again, you may not have as much “shiny new thing” energy because you’ve worked with these folks before. Sure, it’s a new script and a new character and new locations, but the shorthand is there, the chemistry is not quite as electric, the muscle memory for the people could keep you from having as spectacular results as you would like to experience.

More importantly, it could keep your AUDIENCE from experiencing the results of your inspired acting. If your work suffers because you’re missing that creative spark, that’s tragic.

So, I ask you: How do you keep up the shiny new thing experience in everything you do? How do you prevent yourself from getting bored with the old thing, while you’re still working on it? What are your tactics for keeping up the “first time, every time” feeling when you have performance after performance after performance, doing the exact same show with the exact same people for years on stage? How do you employ some shiny new thing energy while staying true to your long-term commitments? This is a wonderful balance when you can strike it. I’d love to hear from you about how you’ve managed this!

Bonnie Gillespie is living her dreams by helping others figure out how to live theirs. Wanna work with Bon? Start here. Thanks!

Originally published by Actors Access at http://more.showfax.com/columns/avoice/archives/001775.html. Please support the many wonderful resources provided by the Breakdown Services family. This posting is the author’s personal archive.