Options - "It's like dangling toys in front of kids"

Imagine telling your kids, or any kids in your lives that they might get a really nice toy next week. Imagine how excited they are and how they can never get that thought out of their mind. They might try hard to stop thinking about it, but they will continue to get their hopes up. Now imagine telling them the next week that they won't be getting a toy. Horrible right? Now, I know I'm comparing things that happen to me like kids, but options feel the same way. I have been modelling for coming up to 7 years now and dealing with options is one of the hardest things to do.

I am certain that I have mentioned about options in the past, but they will never stop coming and I still haven't worked out how to deal with them properly. Some might be for smaller amounts of money and of course they are easy to put to the back of your mind. But one I had hanging over for a week this past week was for £18,000!!! Silly money right?! For a car commercial and it would have been shooting in Portugal for 6 days as well! Like a dream job! How you can put this to the back of your mind and forget about it is beyond me and something I really struggle to do. Any advise? ;-)

They are never guaranteed and its easy to say to my agency to not tell me, however they need to ensure that I will be free for the shoot if it happens to come off. Its always a tricky one and one in which I spend hours and hours chatting to other models about. The good thing now is that I know how to cope when the options are taken off. At the end of the day its not like I lost that job, as I never had it in the first place. Self motivating talks to keep positive is the key, and ensuring you don't sit and wallow in self pity, I mean, where does that ever get you??? We have all done it, but you always end up realising how pointless that was and feeling sorry for yourself gets you no where.

It's not something that just models/actors go through. This happens in everyday life when you are looking for a job and waiting to hear back from an interview. The only difference is this happens often on a weekly basis! So coping with disappointment is the most important thing and being thankful when one of them comes off.


Anyways a short little post updating on current events. Been a fair few auditions last week and I am continuing to create new opportunities for myself as well. But ultimately anything from now until xmas will be a bonus. December and January does tend to be quiet so its important to keep myself as busy as possible.

Thanks again for reading

James