*Note: If you watch the video, keep in mind that it is from 2023, the year that I thought using cute GIFs to illustrate my points was the most brilliant idea ever for going viral on YouTube. Oh, Amy….
I think we’re all grateful that I’ve moved on from that phase. 🤣
We’re on the messy side of my office today because the sun is being weird on that side where my backdrop is pretty, but we’re just gonna go with it cause this is not about perfection, right?
So I’ve been on a bit of a healing journey recently specifically around my mom, thinking a lot about her and about how she was my biggest fan, and I really miss that.
For those of you who don’t know, my mom died when I was 24.
She was my biggest fan. It was so wonderful and beautiful, how much she believed in me and thought I was talented.
I remember this one improv show that I did. She had this joke where she always had this fantasy of standing up in the middle of the audience when I was performing on stage and yelling out, “That’s my baby!”
She got to do it that night, and I actually like teed her up for it. I said, “This was always my mom’s dream to...” and then she took it from there.
Everybody loved it. It was very fun.
The show then ended up being really great, which is always a bonus. Somebody took her home I came home later. She had kind of waited up in her bed to be like, “Amy, Amy, I have to talk to you about the show. It was so good. Oh my goodness. It was amazing. You were so good and everybody in the show was so good. And it was just amazing! It was wonderful!”
She went on and on and on and on and on and on about how great it was.
Here I had been thinking, “Man, I have a lot to learn and I am not as good as all those folks over there. Ugh, there’s always ways to get better and I gotta be thinking about how I can get better.”
And here she was basically just like, “You’re great! You’re awesome! Look at how good you already are!”
And I really like tapping into that energy and that feel.
And that has inspired me to become my own biggest fan.
Maybe that sounds kind of cheesy and cliche, but I wanna do that.
I wanna become my own biggest fan.
Two Ways to Play
There’s two ways that all of us can gently start playing with this idea.
1️⃣ — One, we can tap into the energy of other people around us who do believe in us, who do think we’re talented, who do think we have a lot going for us, on our side, rah rah, rah, cheering us on.
I can go back and kind of live in the memory of that night with my mom and see how that affects my self-concept.
2️⃣ — And then the other thing I think we can do is think about people that we believe in, that we think are talented or are doing a great job, and we’re like, “Why can’t you see what a great job you’re doing? I see what a great job you’re doing. I want you to know what a great job you’re doing.”
We all have people in our lives that we believe in and so I think tapping into that energy, and remembering what it’s like to feel that for somebody else where maybe they don’t see it yet and then finding a way to direct that inward.
It can be a lot harder for us to direct those good feelings, that praise and pride inward for our own accomplishments.
But we can.
I think the only thing we can do is practice.
Let’s face it, our inner critic has become really loud and it only got really loud ‘cause we practiced the thoughts, we listened to those thoughts.
It’s kind of a pervasive belief in our society of like, “ Oh, I am my own worst critic.” Everybody says that, right? It’s just like in the collective.
That only happened through practice.
Why aren’t we practicing something that serves us far better?
The inner critic can be useful. It can help us with like healthy striving, improving, but at some point, we also have to be acknowledging how great we already are and giving ourselves credit for that.
Start practicing that biggest fan voice.
Start becoming your own biggest fan.
It’ll be helpful for all of us. 💖
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I’m a professional actor, a mindfulness and mindset coach, and I’m ready to help you thrive in your actor life.
🎭 I’ve been a professional actress for almost 20 years. I’ve survived 3 industry shut downs - 2 strikes and 1 global pandemic. I’ve worked in TV, film, commercials, and produced my own award-winning web series.
🧠 I’ve been a life coach for 5 years, specializing in mindfulness and neurolinguistic programming and helping people become more aware and focused on making positive changes in their lives.
💖 I blend lived experience with powerful, proven coaching tools.
🎢 Let’s get you feeling resilient, empowered, focused, playful, relaxed, confident, and riding the acting career roller coaster without throwing up! 🤗
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