Seriously.

Stop it.

Stop the memes of "me at the beginning of 2016 vs. me at the end of 2016." Stop the complaining about treasured celebs who died or politics gone wrong. Stop the, "I can't wait to get this year in the rear-view mirror" of it all.

Feel it? Sure.

But every time you say it, every time you put it out there, every time you write off this whole year as sucky, you negate EVERY good thing that happened.

The auditions. The meetings. The bookings. The breakthroughs. The laughs. The new people you met. The exciting adventures you started in on. The goals you laid out. The HOPE you invested.

Stop doing that.

Now… I'll admit, I had a version of this post that approached this issue from the positive.

It was titled "2016 was the best year!" and the draft of the post had bullet points about all the good stuff and mostly the CLARITY that comes from anything we experience that's less-than-awesome.

And then I said to myself, "Y'know what? Scrap it. Yeah, your usual way of seeing the world is all about coming at it from the positive. Yeah, you always look for the lesson. Yeah, you have a really fantastic muscle for finding the nugget of excellence in EVERYTHING that happens. But we've still got more than two weeks of this glorious year left and that's a lot o' bitching still to consume if you don't tell folks why it's flat-out dangerous to do that."

So, here it is:

It is dangerous to keep complaining about conditions you cannot control.

It teaches your brain (and more importantly, your very spirit) that you'll give a lot of attention and energy and focus to things you feel powerless to change.

And your brain likes to be efficient.

So you're setting yourself up not just to notice the biggies (which, of course, we ALL do), but also to notice alllllllll the little things that Self-Management for Actors was created to help you conquer your obsession with: submissions that go un-answered, auditions that go un-appreciated, meetings that felt great but then go without an offer of representation… and on and on and on.

I ask you: What's your preferred worldview?

And does complaining about ANYTHING help you achieve a reality that is more in alignment with that worldview?

Hey, you may decide that complaining is an essential part of your happiness. And I won't judge you for that. (I just will spend ZERO time with you, because frankly, you're exhausting to be around when all you wanna do is list off things you don't control, how powerless you feel about those things, and how disinterested you are in hearing my top ten suggestions about how to FIX what you're bitching about.)

If you're like, "Hey, that's not me; I just feel the need to vent now and then," then do that. Vent and then STFU. Wallow not an instant longer on any thought that makes you blue. It's no good for you, it's no good for those around you, and it's training your brain to find more "stuff" to inventory!

I'll challenge you to spend these last two weeks of the year listing off all the things for which you're grateful. All the lessons the year taught you about what you want, going forward. All the people you met who inspire you. All the opportunities you had to display your gifts as a storyteller. All the closure that is inherent to a "9" year. All the dreams that got fired up further because you KNOW 2017 is going to be filled with the pendulum swinging in another direction and you cannot WAIT to scoop up all that goodness and bathe in it.

I'll challenge you to make 2016 finish super-freakin' strong thanks to the work you'll do in our totally free training program Get in Gear for the New Year. If you've missed an email leading up to Wednesday's inbox goodness, they're all stored here for you to get the scoop.

And for the creatives worldwide who are joining me to keep the up-leveling going strong for 100 days beyond that with Get in Gear for the Next Tier, I have sooooooooooo much goodness in store! I've been pulling all-nighters, creating some of the most groundbreaking curriculum SMFA has ever seen, and it's all yours starting January 1st!

If you have questions for me about this exciting new program or about how to create LASTING change in your life, I hope you'll join me on Facebook Live (hit LIKE and turn on notifications at this page now) on December 18th at 2:30pm PST! If you can't join in but want to post your questions in advance, we have a juicy thread going over here in the SMFAninjas Facebook Group.

Phew! There's a lot of life and love to wring out of the end of this amazing year, y'all! I don't know about you, but I'll be making every second count!

Love and rockets,

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