My daughter, Reese, is extremely passionate about musical theater; it is her lifelong dream to do it professionally. So we were so excited when we found out she got her first audition for a professional role. Reese prepared for weeks; she rehearsed her song every single day, she rehearsed her monologue in multiple ways every single day.
It’s now audition day, and Reese has this nervous excitement going into it. They call her in, she heads into the room with the directors, the producers, the casting agents, and a few minutes later she comes back outside and she has a glowing smile on her face. The first thing she says to me, “That was so much fun!” But the smile quickly faded as she didn’t receive a callback.
We got in the car and she experienced that disappointment. A couple of tears were shed, some frustration, and I allowed that. I wanted her to feel that emotion – she should be disappointed, this is her dream! She needs to have that fire!
But a couple of minutes later I said, “Let’s go get some frozen yogurt, we need to celebrate your preparation.” I wanted to show her that she should be celebrating all of the hard work that she did; the dedication, the rehearsals every single day, and celebrate how much fun she had in the audition alone. She may go on hundreds of auditions before ever landing in a professional role, and I want her to learn that she’s got to embrace the process, fall in love with the hard work, fall in love with all of the tears that are going to come. But celebrate the preparation!
It’s not enough to celebrate only the result, we have to learn how to celebrate along the way and be proud of all of the work and energy we’re putting into the process.
Because the process is going to take longer than the end result will be, and live on.
Where are you celebrating your preparation? If you’re not, comment below and show me where you’re going to celebrate today.