How Actors to Beat 12 Physical and Mental Blocks to Success

Bad career destroying habits of actors

This Could be Your Physical and Mental Blocks in Becoming a Good Actor

Correct them before it's too late!

1. Insensitive Face (Poker Face; भावहीन चेहरा)

You have a blank face to reactions to emotional stimuli
This could either be natural due to insensitivity or deliberate. The other person may feel bad if you are not agreeing, sympathizing or appreciating through facial expressions. Meeting another person, nobody likes a blank face. For an actor, a sensitive and expressive face, sending positive vibes are an asset.
Learn to show your feeling to others with an expressive face, but don’t exaggerate deliberately. It may look fake. The first step in improving this is being aware of your type and how your face responds to what you hear. Ask friends, other co-actors, your acting coach.  Develop your power of imagination and feel the world around you.

2. You drum or tap your fingers or shake your legs

Either just a bad habit or a sign of nervousness or lack of confidence.
What it conveys to the other person in front of you? A nervous, insecure or a  hesitant guy. This may put off the other person.
Be aware of what you do while having a discussion with the other person. The moment you become aware of this, just say in your mind “Stop”; count 1 to 10 and continue responding normally

3. You slouch when you walk, stand on one foot or move like a pendulum

Researchers found that when you slouch while walking, sitting or stand awkwardly they experienced worse moods than those who had more pep in their steps. What’s more, participants who walked, sit or stand in the slouchy style remembered more negative things rather than positive things.
Ideally, by adulthood a person will have a normal walking, sitting or standing pose and gesture.
Unfortunately, few of us achieve the ideal gait, and fewer still maintain it. Over time, we may lower our heads and thrust our trunks forward. Instead of swinging, our arms may dangle listlessly at our sides.
Bad habits aren’t the only reason our gaits go awry. A variety of health conditions can throw us off stride, too. Obesity, Arthritis, Asthma or  Orthopedic operations are some of the few reasons.

Here are some tips to correct bad walking and posture habits:

A. Look ahead. Train your sights 10 to 20 feet ahead of you. If you need to check the ground to avoid obstacles, lower your eyes, not your head.
B. Stretch your spine. Your shoulders should be level and square. Tuck your buttocks in.
C. Bend your arms. Flex your elbows at close to 90-degree angles and let your arms swing at waist level.
D. Take measured steps. Too long a stride throws you off balance. Concentrate on taking shorter steps, but more of them.

3. Nose/mouth, picking

This annoying and silly habit of 'digging gold from nose' is one of the worst habits that go un-questioned. This habit is not only bad for common social etiquette, but could be bad for your health. After touching several things and then taking the same finger into your nose, you will land at the doctor's clinic. Hence, stop this awkward habit of pulling sticky substance from your nose, or fetching left over food strands from your mouth.

4. You love alcohol, love to drink quickly and must have every night

Binge drinking (the consumption of an excessive amount of alcohol in a short period of time) in actors, causes many serious problems.
I have seen many actors whose drinking habits leading to addiction, have destroyed their career, love and family life and unfortunately are on Mumbai roads almost begging to live.

There could be health problems like Cirrhosis of the liver, weight gain and consequent hypertension, heart diseases, dizziness, memory loss, puffy eyes and face, bloody or yellow eyes, behavior changes like becoming an angry man or a woman, over sensitiveness with swings in moods like suddenly crying etc.
Tell me which casting director will approve such an actor for a film or TV serial? No way!

To save you from such damage, the key is just STOP! Develop a strong determination and STOP.
If you can’t then the 2nd key is “limitation”! Learn to have "no alcohol days" and just push the bottle or turn the empty glass on the table after a small one or two.

5. An 'Owl' at night

As an actor if every night is a late night, leading to late mornings or in some cases your morning turns into afternoon, you are screwed! You are killing your own acting career, for sure. Though being in the entertainment business, it’s okay once a while, but if this becomes routine, you will damage apart from career, your body as well in the long run.
For your career, “a late night, actor” presents a lethargic man or a woman with poor energy which is so essential in auditions and for a shoot. As the time passes, you look older than what you are and in films or TV, good looks and a high level of energy is your gate pass to stardom.
The solution is simple:
A. At least get a minimum of 7-8 hours of good sleep on most nights of the week. A good night's sleep also helps you stay awake and fresh throughout the day.
B. Irrespective of when you sleep, your waking time in the morning MUST be fixed. The best time for actors is around 5 AM in the morning.

6. Feel 'lonely'

Though occasional  loneliness may inspire creativity and there is nothing wrong being alone for “Observation” and “Imagination” to create your “characters”, developing a guilty feeling of loneliness can be damaging to your mind leading to depressive moods and negativity.
Be friendly with positive people, who inspire you and from whom you learn an acting craft, industry happenings and know about how they succeed. Don’t join a company of people who all the time discusses when and how they have failed.

7. Carrying a heavy backpack

As actors we love to carry our world wherever we go, because we can't afford to miss a single thing. This habit of hauling the world on the back or shoulder causes lots of harm to our health. Carrying heavy bags can cause various long term effects like serious back, neck pain and poor posture.
The solution is to fill your bag only with minimum required

8. Munching snacks and junk food too often a day and even in the nights

The major consequence of this habit is increase in weight and getting deshaped.
If you disrupt your regular eating pattern, this extra eating can flood your body with extra calories and unhealthy ingredients, which can further cause serious chronic health problems like diabetes, heart problems and acidity.
Though you  may carry small healthy snacks in your bag for long hours of auditions and film or TV shoots, the solution to this addictive habit is to have "time fixed" for your 3 to 5 meals a day and NOTHING in between!

9. Lying constantly

In order to get quick success, some develop the habit of lying. The worst consequences of such habit are
A. Exposure of a lie
B. Living in a constant fear and anxiety that  someday they may be exposed.

Now you how detrimental this habit could be?

The solution is: Remember, when we define an actor, he /she is a person who lives truthfully under Imaginary circumstances. Then why not to be truthful in real life?
Acting is a business and an actor in the long term can only be successful with truthfulness and honesty.

10. Skipping breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and especially for actors, who require a lot of energy in running around for auditions and shoot. Your performance in a scene also require a lot of energy. If your entire breakfast comprises one cup of rushed tea or coffee and a toast , then you're setting yourself up for an unhealthy future. This will affect your energy reserves and negatively affect your metabolism. If you skip your breakfast, you are likely to eat more during the other meals and this can lead to weight gain.
The best way is to have sumptuous breakfast comprising of nutritious food to keep on toes with a positive mood

11. Nail biting

A sign of nervousness, which can be easily caught by people you meet. This habit could be responsible for your rejection in auditions as nobody likes to hire a nervous guy. The nervousness depicts a poor confidence and a sign that a person couldn't be depended upon.
So, stop this dirty habit right away!

12. Bad Speaking habits and voice culture

A. Repeatedly using the word “I” (In Hindi “Main”) for example “I like this" and that etc. (Main ja raha hun, Mujhe ye acchha lagta hai, mera ghar etc.)
Instead, learn to speak “We, Us, You” (In Hindi Hum, Aap)
B. Speaking with a heavy accent of a regional language
C. Wrongly pronouncing some words like Shaaa to Sa or Sa to Shaaa
D. Speaking too fast, thus mixing words
E. Speaking in a low volume. The listener has to exert a lot to hear what is being said
F. Speaking with effort or haltingly or with a slight stammer
G. Saying “I think” too often (In Hindi- Mere vichar se or Main sochta haun ki…or Mujhe lagta hai ki…). This shows lack of confidence and that you are unsure
H. Giggling or laughing too often unnecessary.
An actor must be trained in speaking and voice culture.  He/She must have good speaking habits and a good voice. This means quality, clarity, pronunciation, diction, different accents of speaking Hindi like: Punjabi, Haiyanvi, Rajasthani, Bhojpuri, South Indian, Bangali etc, volume, speed, pitch etc.

This training can be provided by your acting coach or a good school which spends sufficient time with individual students.