Concurrently Realistic and Unrealistic

I have a friend who used the book Start by Jon Acuff to embark on a journey. She is searching for new career opportunities and instead of staying at home conducting my job search, this book has inspired "[her] to overcome her fears, take action, and go after [her] dream of helping others through personal development strategies and media". I was really excited about her project, to say the least. Anyway, she gave me a copy of the book and I'm listening to it right now. Somewhere in the beginning, Jon makes this statement:

You have to be brutally realistic about your present circumstances and wildly unrealistic about your future circumstances. #Start @JonAcuff

I've been thinking about this for some time now; obviously not in those exact words. I've been thinking about it for months after a conversation with an under-employed friend who takes any assignment that he can get his hands on. In fact, I have several friends are are unemployed and under-employed. I give them advice on finding jobs and generally discourage them from taking "anything". To which they all tell me in so many words that they don't have the luxury I have of being married to a successful husband who provides everything that I need. Every time i heard that, I tried my best to defend myself saying that I felt the same way before I was married. To add to this, I was at my YMCA class one day and the instructor suggested that we all go out for eat afterwards since none of us worked anyway. I could very well go to breakfast, but then I'd have to admit the truth: that I had nothing else to do.

The funny thing is no one seems to know that I'm unemployed except the people my husband tells.

It's because I'm not being brutally realistic about my present circumstances. I do very limited contract work. I HAD 2 monthly clients and everything else is sparsely sporadic. At this point one contract job has ended and I am unsure of the future of the other. I have to go back and reread this chapter but at this point I don't see how I can accept this and still be unrealistic about my future. However, at the church that I attend this is what is promoted. If you read my other blog, I share my sermon notes from Lakewood Church and the general message is of hope. I think that I could be a grammy, tony, academy, winning actor, director, writer, producer. Every great person used to be unemployed so I'm sure that I can be great too.

That's all for now..

Break Out

I acted in a television commercial today. The commercial will seek to raise awareness about Joel Osteen's book, Break Out. 

Break Out discusses how God Created us to leave our marks on our generations and not just get by with average, unrewarding or unfulfilling lives. God created us to leave our marks on our generations. This book gives five ways to go beyond our barriers  and live extraordinary lives.

I'm not sure that any book can give 5 ways to go beyond my barriers. Every time I talk to anyone about what I can do to be successful usually, everything that they tell me is circumstantial and good luck. But Joel Osteen is very encouraging. He has a way of saying things that encourages me to want to try anyway. So even though I thing it's all luck, I say if it's all luck, then why not try. It may not work, but what if it does. It's funny how most people are eager to believe the worse when there is an equal opportunity that the best can happen.

Either way, I had fun today. I can't wait to see myself and my friends in the commercial. They shot the commercial with a Canon C300 and the videographers seemed to be excited about that. All of the extras in my scene are members of Lakewood Church's drama team. Many of us are working actors, some of us act on the side. I feel so honored to be a part of the drama team and I'm believing that we will all break out soon. :-)