The Last Twenty Percent

Listen up all you actors out there! Yesterday I had the fortune of being able to snag Jason Scheff (lead singer of the band Chicago) for 30 minutes to talk about my new venture as a Beachbody Coach. Wait what? What does a rock star know about Beachbody? Well turns out, Jason has been friends with Tony Horton for over 25 years, and four years ago, Jason decided to change his life with P90X. Since then, he’s been a Beachbody Coach as well – and now ranks as one of the most successful coaches to date. So we got to talking about the ins and outs of making this work, and along the way, Jason said something that struck a chord with me:

“Listen, we’re in the same industry man. In our industry you can’t just be good. You can’t just be great. You have to work to give yourself every POSSIBLE advantage over the next person. You need be the total package. If you’re lacking in even ONE area – that’s enough. Now, some people get lucky. They just happen to be in the right place at the right time. But for the rest of us – it’s our job to work as hard as we can perfecting every aspect of ourselves, so that when that right moment comes, we’ll be ready.”

I’m like… whoa. I mean – I knew this… technically… but not until he put it in those terms did I fully come to realize it. For me, it’s being skinny. I just had an appointment for a production of Aladdin. I didn’t get it. What if I’d had that extra 10lbs of muscle and actually looked good in a vest-no-shirt scenario? Who knows. Maybe I might have had more of a shot. But that’s the thing. If that’s ALL I need to bring myself up another notch on the totem pole, that’s something I CAN CONTROL! So I’m gonna bust my ass to make it happen.

We all have different goals, but in this industry where you have so, so little control over your own life – you need to grab those areas that you CAN control by the horns and squeeze the ever-lovin’ life out of em. Make things happen for yourself and the rest of the pieces will fall in to place. Use a bad audition or a crappy weak as fuel to your fire and just hit this thing THAT much harder! Who knows what might happen…

Essentially, talking with him made me realize that I need to become a personal trainer. And what I want, is to be a personal trainer who specializes in helping actors and entertainers achieve their fitness goals. As Jason told me, “so many people are already 80% of the way there – maybe it’s just losing that last 10 pounds – but they’re stuck at that 80%”. Well damnit, 80% ain’t good enough. It’s not good enough for me, and it shouldn’t be good enough for you. And if any of this has resonated with you, and you feel inspired to start making a difference in your life – achieving that last 20% – get in touch with me and lets make it happen.