Momentum

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Brittani NoelOver the holidays, my Capoeira group participated in a multi-cultural holiday event at the Skirball Center. A highlight of the day for spectators was seeing one of the instructors- Instructor Lacraia- “flying!” The man literally did one flip after another, effortlessly tumbling across the floor and spinning through the air, making jaws drop all around him.

Shortly thereafter I was lucky enough to have Instructor Lacraia as a substitute for one of my classes. He taught us a really cool sequence of aerial kicks and movements. As he was explaining how to connect the moves, he reflected back on his flying act, sharing with us that it’s relatively easy, or I should say far more do-able, when you learn how to use the momentum of one move to get to and propel onto the next. If you don’t use the momentum, you really have to muscle it. This got me thinking about momentum as it relates to career.

So many times, I find myself wishing I just had more momentum in my career… or looking at other actors and thinking this person or that person is so lucky, they really seem to have picked up some great traction. One job just seems to domino into the next. What I didn’t realize until recently was that momentum is something we all have to varying degrees the second we make that first move and that success lies in using that momentum to get to the next thing.

I’m not going to lie, I had been in a bit of a funk of feeling like not very much was going on for me professionally leading up to the holidays. I eventually mustered up the energy to pick myself up and start self-submitting on some projects hoping to get the ball rolling again. This forced me to write down some bullet points of what I had done in order to effectively pitch myself. Once I wrote down these accomplishments, I looked at the completed pitch and thought, hey, this looks pretty impressive! That boosted my confidence to use that pitch to jump to the next step of seeking out new representation. I was thrilled that this generated quite a bit of interest. Several meetings later, I am overjoyed to report that I’ve signed with O’Farrell Management, perfectly timed to start off pilot season and the New Year with some pretty good momentum! This sequence of events would never have happened if I didn’t take a look at what I did have going on and leverage that existing energy to somersault, cartwheel or back-flip my way to the next move.

In acting just as in Capoeira, it all flows so much better if you don’t stop between moves like I did because, as Instructor Lacraia warned, once you stop the momentum you really have to muscle it to get going again. I’m now finding it more important than ever to keep consistently documenting all my successes as an actor, no matter how big or small, because they can be so easily forgotten. I encourage everyone to do the same because these little bursts of momentum create the energy needed to advance. Sometimes that success may be a huge jaw dropping back-flip that moves us forward exponentially and sometimes it might be a small compact cartwheel that gets us just a little further along… but either way, we must see it, market it, and breathe in energy from it so that we can continue moving forward. And isn’t that what we all want in 2015?

Check out Instructor Lacraia fly!

Interested in Capoeira? Capoeira Brasil LA is offering a new student special: 3 months of training for the price of 1 through January. Try your first class free and see if it’s right for you!

What can you do to start building momentum in 2015? And more importantly, how will you use the momentum you have to keep moving forward throughout the year? I’d love to hear your thoughts!