Now that the Olympics are over…actors can stop watching the games and start working on their game. There are many parallels between excelling in sports and in your acting career.

First off competition is intense. Acting is perceived as being glamorous and many want to pursue it. About 10,000 actors in Chicago have agent representation. How many actors make a living in the business or even work regularly?

Secondly the way to get work is through consistently getting better at your craft. Like a potential Olympian, if you are going for the gold, you should always be working to improve your talent. This can be accomplished by taking classes, analyzing performances and learning new skills. Can you look back at yourself last year at this time and identify how you have gotten stronger as an actor? 

Third – hone your technique. Great athletes learn technique so they have the tools to take risks. If you don’t have the foundation, the chances you take in your acting will not work. Understanding technique allows you to be brave and take calculated risks with the material. If you don’t take risks, you will not stand out from the crowd of actors auditioning.

The final component when going for the gold is consistency. Like an Olympic athlete, you have qualifying rounds -- commercial auditions, smaller theatre projects, student films. You must be brilliant in every outing to be seen again and for bigger and better projects. Casting directors are looking for ways to pair down the amount of talent they see and one or two horrendous audition could do the trick.   

If you are going for the gold, you need to work as hard as an Olympian to get there. Are you?