Meant For This (eBook)

The Mindset and Strategy to Achieve Your Most 'Impossible' Dreams

Erica Wernick (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2021 | 1. Auflage
220 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-0983-9723-4 (ISBN)

Infos

MEANT FOR THIS is for anyone with a dream inside their heart they can't ignore. The kind of dream that feels too big, or too impossible to ever become a reality. Whether you've put it on the back burner for years, or you've been working towards it your whole life, this book will breathe new life into it and create a whole new world of possibility. As artists and dreamers, we're flooded with discouraging rhetoric: 'That dream is going to be really hard.' 'Good luck winning the lottery!' 'Do you really want to be a starving artist?' Not only does this tempt people to pursue something more 'realistic,' but it also robs us of hope and sticks us with a dead end. Meant For This is just the opposite. Finally, a book that understands the artist's journey and guides you with a refreshingly motivating perspective. Through 20 chapters of personal stories, exercises, and actionable content, Hollywood's Success Coach Erica Wernick shows you the strategies and mindset that has helped countless artists turn their biggest dreams into reality. Erica has built a career providing support and strategy in a way that was desperately needed in the Hollywood industry. Between Erica and her clients, they've booked work on over 60 television shows and films on Netflix, Hulu, HBO and every other major network under the sun, working with A-listers, starting their own companies, and landing opportunities they never had before. This book will: Give you permission to dream as big as you possibly can Show you how to access your Star Power to unlock bigger opportunities Help you map out a brand new strategy for your biggest dream Make you feel seen and heard as an artist like you've never felt before Inspire you to stop settling and finally lead the extraordinary life you desire No dream is too big or too impossible. If it keeps whispering to you, it's time to answer the call and live the life you've always dreamed of.

Textauszug

CHAPTER 1

Making the “Impossible” Possible: The Blueprint

The list had been posted. I frantically scanned it, searching for my name. I desperately wanted to see it on there, I needed to see it on there. If my name wasn’t on that list, I didn’t know what I was going to do with my life. My dreams would be crushed before they even began. The list wasn’t long, there were only 20 names, so it only took a moment to discover…

“OH MY GOD!! I GOT IN!!!”

There was my name, “Erica Wernick,” on the list of students who had been selected for the Graphic Design major. The list that says only 20 out of the 45 of us were moving on to pursue graphic design in college. My dreams were officially beginning.

See, the design school I was trying to get into didn’t open up the major until junior year. That meant I spent my first two years of college not even knowing if I’d be able to study the thing I wanted to study. I had to take prerequisites and put a portfolio together, and then, maybe, I could pursue this major halfway through my college experience.

Even though I had never taken design classes before, I still knew this was my calling. It was confirmed one day when I spoke to a friend who was a year ahead of me.

“How’s the program? Do you love it?” I excitedly asked. I was hoping to get a glimpse into my dreamy future.

“Eh, it’s OK. I’m taking this class that’s all about fonts. It’s so boring,” my friend replied. To a normal person, this would totally burst their fantasy bubble, but for me, it did the opposite.

“An entire class about fonts? THAT SOUNDS AWESOME!”

A design nerd was born. And that’s when I knew this dream in my heart was a true one.

When I finally made it to my first official class, I couldn’t have been more of a cliché: sitting at the table closest to the professor, eager as hell to learn everything about graphic design. It was my own little Rachel Berry moment. I was here to succeed and live my dreams, and no one could get in my way!

Our first assignment was a crazy project for a first time graphic design student: we had to combine photography with typography (fonts, essentially, my favorite thing in the world—oh my gosh, please still like me, I swear I can be cool.). I put so much energy and work into this assignment. To quote Morales from A Chorus Line (and give a little foreshadowing), “I dug right down to the bottom of my soul and I tried.”

The day we got our grades back, I was floating on top of the world. Not only did I receive an “A” but the professor held my project up in front of the class as an example of a great design! I mean, holy crap. Could it be any clearer that I’m on the right track? This validation solidified it for me.

Then came the second assignment. I channeled my inner High Achiever and got to work. The same enthusiasm carried me through, my work ethic never dipping below excellent. When you find something that feels like your calling, and you really care, you go all in. That’s what I was doing. No half-assing for me.

The fateful day came where we received our grades for this second project. When I got mine, I couldn’t believe what I saw. It was a “D.” I had never gotten a D in my life. The computer lab was buzzing with energy and the light from the screens felt bright and cheery. But darkness loomed around me as I felt my own light begin to dim. I sank deep into my chair and felt completely crushed. How did this happen? There were no notes of explanation so I was at a total loss. I had no idea how I went from the star pupil to almost failing. What came next changed my life forever.

As I was sulking, the professor wheeled up next to me in a computer chair. “What happened there, Erica?” She asked. “I guess you just got lucky on that first one.”

A proverbial knife stabbed me in the heart. With that one phrase, my dream was destroyed.

I ran to the bathroom and balled my eyes out. I was devastated. Here I was, pursuing my dream, and my professor, the person who is supposed to teach me, said that anything I had done well up to this point was just luck.

As I went through the rest of the semester, I learned that this professor used fear as a teaching tactic. By December, I hadn’t really learned anything new about graphic design. But I did learn one thing: that I’m the only one who gets to decide whether or not I can succeed at my dream, and I’m definitely the only one who determines if it’s worth pursuing at all. So I packed up my stuff and pulled a Morales—I found another class. The next year I transferred schools and finally learned how to be a good designer.

My dream was destroyed in a moment, but that moment was exactly that—a moment. I reconnected with my belief in myself. I reconnected with my dream. And I decided it was still going to happen. After graduating from my new university, I moved to Los Angeles and broke into Hollywood. Over the past 12 years, I’ve designed graphics for over 30 television shows and films. And not a single second of it was due to luck.

The attainability of our dreams is a decision within us. It begins with a belief and that’s the seed we plant. Greatness is more accessible than we think…as long as we can hold the vision through any obstacle thrown our way.

Even now, when I have a new dream, the doubts still come rushing to the surface. Who am I to achieve this? I’m not special enough. I’m not lovable enough. I’m not talented enough. It sounds like my voice, but those doubts are inevitably built by ghosts of failures past. It makes the dream feel outside of me, like this unreachable thing that’s cute in theory, but ultimately destined for someone else. Those old stories combined with the “bigness” of the dream builds a strong case for it being impossible. But I know that greatness is accessible for all of us. Abraham Hicks has said the first mistake we make in this process is calling it a “big” dream. Abraham says as long as we use the word “big” to describe it, we keep it out of reach. We can make it accessible simply by changing the label. It’s just a dream. Not big. Just a dream.

What’s crazy is that since I’ve accomplished my Hollywood dream, and lived it for over a decade, it doesn’t feel “big” to me. Someone looking in from the outside (like my friends and family back home) would certainly call it a big dream. But since I’ve accomplished it, it doesn’t feel big. It feels right here, in the palm of my hand. And in comparison to other people’s accomplishments, it feels small.

So, I know. I know that the dreams within you are reachable. I know that greatness is attainable. The “Oh my gosh but HOW will I ever make this happen?” and the voice inside your head that questions your worthiness and deservedness, makes these dreams feel completely “big” and out of reach. But that’s all an illusion. The wall we put up between ourselves and our dreams is built by us. We chose to put it up there and we can choose to take it down.

When I first began my Hollywood journey, I had a very supportive cousin who recommended I read a book called The Success Principles by Jack Canfield. In that book, I read a line that changed my life: “It has been estimated that someone in America becomes a millionaire every 4 minutes.” This blew my mind. I grew up believing that millionaires were rare and that only special people become millionaires. I mean, every 4 minutes? That means it’s normal, it’s achievable. This was my first experience with reeling a dream in— taking away the “big” element, and making it attainable. Some call this “normalizing,” where you literally make your big dream seem normal.

Ever since then, I’ve had this ability to dream bigger than anyone I know, and truly believe in that dream’s possibility. It’s almost become a superpower. But I don’t want to keep it for myself. I want you to have it, too. I want my belief to become contagious. That’s why I’m writing this book and what this chapter is all about. I’ve connected to this as my purpose in life, to share the message that any dream is possible.

If you’ve been brave enough to declare a big dream of yours, I know you may have been met with disbelief (from others and even yourself). People love to tell you how hard this will be and how rare it is to succeed. While data may prove those statements to be true, I’ve come to realize that data is only true for the people who believe it.

I think any dream is going to have challenges; whether you’re trying to win an Oscar or start your own business. The challenges are part of our journey and contribute to our character and the lessons we must learn. The challenges make the destination oh-so-much sweeter. The idea that...

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 9.8.2021
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Gesundheit / Leben / Psychologie ► Lebenshilfe / Lebensführung
• ISBN-10: 1-0983-9723-1 / 1098397231
• ISBN-13: 978-1-0983-9723-4 / 9781098397234