Stacking the Deck in Your Favor: How to Plan With the Life You Actually Have

Every New Year, we set goals like the future version of ourselves has unlimited time, energy, money, and emotional capacity — and then we wonder why we burn out or fall off track by March.

In this episode of The Artist Behind the Art, we’re breaking down why most goal-setting fails — and how to plan in a way that actually works.

This is a practical, honest conversation about capacity, sacrifice, and alignment. Instead of adding more tools or chasing more motivation, you’ll learn how to plan with the life you actually have — not the one you wish you had.

I introduce two core concepts that have completely changed how I plan:

• Playing with your full deck of cards
• Stacking the deck in your favor

Because clarity alone doesn’t get you to your goals — alignment does.

This episode is designed to be interactive, so grab a notebook or open your notes app and plan alongside me.

In This Episode, We Cover:

• Why 80–90% of New Year’s goals fail (and it’s not a willpower issue)
• The difference between being interested and being committed
• The one question most people skip: What will this goal ask me to sacrifice?
• How to audit your time, energy, money, and focus honestly
• The four questions that reveal what’s actually blocking your progress
• Two planning approaches:
  • Incremental but intentional progress
  • All-in seasons that stack the deck in your favor
• How to choose the right approach for your current season of life
• Why extraordinary progress comes from intention — not more time
• How alignment leads to peace, momentum, and fewer regrets

Key Takeaway
You don’t need more tools.
You need honest alignment between what you want and how you’re actually living.

This year isn’t about stacking more goals.
 It’s about playing the cards you already have — on purpose.

Thanks so much for listening to The Artist Behind the Art.
This podcast exists to support performers in building sustainable, aligned, and castable careers — beyond just the skills.

✨ Work With Me: Own the Stage Act Creation Mentorship

I’m currently building the next round of Own the Stage: Act Creation Mentorship.

If you feel like you have the talent—but when it comes to act creation, something just isn’t fully clicking—this is for you.

Most of the time, it’s not a complete overhaul.
 It’s a few missing tools and a few shifts in how you’re approaching the process.

That’s what takes you from second-guessing your work
 to becoming the artist who is ready to go for the opportunities you actually want.

If that resonates, I’d love to connect.

📩 Email me at jennifer@aretementorship.com

📲 Or DM me on Instagram at The Artist Behind the Art

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Remember — you already have what it takes.
 The question is: are you ready to prove it to yourself?

Until next time — show up big and own the stage.

Transcript

Speaker 3 0:01

Welcome to the Artist Behind the Art, the podcast that lists the curtain on what it takes to thrive as a professional performer. I'm your host, Jennifer Pierce, artist coach, creative strategist, and lifelong advocate for performers who are ready to go from unsure to unforgettable. This is where the gatekeeping ends and your journey to thriving in the industry begins. Let's dive in.

Speaker 0:31

Have you ever noticed how confident we are when we set goals like the future has unlimited energy, time, money, emotional capacity, and of course zero interruptions? I know I've experienced this myself and I see it all the time. We are all overcommitting to a plan that was never realistic to begin with. And New Year's is a reset point for goals and resolutions. Personally, I love baking them into the year as a quarterly check-in, but New Year's is like the Olympics of goal setting. It's the season of vision boards, motivational words, smart goals, habit stacking, and of course fresh planners. And as a coach, I love. All of these tools, but I have to tell you that this concept I'm going to introduce you to today is the one that. Has really helped me stay on track, course correct and make the most amount of progress that I have ever in my life. And all of these tools, no matter what you incorporate into your planning and goal setting, they all serve one purpose. And that is clarity. But clarity alone doesn't get you to where you want to go. So specificity helps you aim. But your capacity is actually what helps get you there. And unless we really understand what's actually standing between us and our goals, you are likely to become part of the New Year's statistic. And research consistently shows that roughly 80 to 90% of people abandoned your New Year's goals within the first few months. And. I don't think this is because we don't want it badly enough. We're just not planning for life. We're looking at the goal. It's isolated and it's obviously something that's important to us, but unless we really take a look at all of the components, reality is always going to back crashing in. So today I'm gonna introduce you to two ideas, and these are stacking the deck in your favor and playing with your full deck of cards. Because in life I have used both of these. So I want you to always keep in mind that clarity doesn't come from wanting more. It comes from being honest what's already on the table, and if you right now you don't have a notebook and a pen or at least your notes section open, I want you to go ahead and pause and get those ready so we can really make this a tactical episode so you can finally plan, make progress, and make your goals reality. So I don't know what is on your kind of bingo card for this year, but, uh, some of you as circus artists might be applying for circus schools or wanting to refine or build an act. You might have a target. Specific company that you are wanting to submit for, or maybe you're just trying to level up and really take mastery of your craft to the next level. And I want you to really get clear on what that is because. The more that you can see why that goal is important to you, the more you are going to really be able to take it seriously and ask these questions and actually arrive at answers that are going to help you make the right decisions. So here is the question that most people skip. What will this goal ask me to sacrifice? And am I actually prepared for that? And I, I think this usually when we take a look at. That question, it kind of stings because we take an honest look of the things that maybe are going to help us align with that goal. But there are things that we are going to have to either set aside or we're gonna have to give up another dream in the name of the other one. And I want you to really write that down. Sit with the question and really be honest. And for you that might be making a list of things that you have to start saying no to. Or if opportunities come through, that's the filter that you're gonna run that question through to ultimately achieve this goal. And always think that this is for the now. This is not forever. So what will this goal ask me to sacrifice? And am I actually prepared for that? And if you're not, that is okay. And I, I think the biggest thing in life that when we want to do something, but it's not worth the sacrifice, we need to give ourself the peace to be able to say. That's okay. I am, I'm not actually in a position right now that I want to chase that and I wanna sacrifice and make the adjustments in my life for that. But if that is a resounding hell yes, then we, we want to get there and we want to make the choices and the changes to make sure that we can actually get there. So we want to think about this also because wanting something and being resourced for it are two different things. So I love the quote, are you interested or are you committed? Because those are two different things. And this quote comes from Ken Blanchard. And his core idea is when you're interested in something, you do it only when it's convenient. But when you're committed to something, you accept no excuses only results. So if you're interested in something, you're gonna be willing to skip training or maybe sacrificing and scrimping for that workshop is maybe not aligned with your goals. And again, that is okay. And you have to find that place where peace can pass through you so you can. Then not live with regrets. And I think going through this filter is the biggest thing. I think in life, one of my biggest core ideas that I carry with me, that is I don't wanna have regrets. So that means I have to have such clarity of when I commit to something or when I turn away from something and say, this is just not serving the goals and the alignment I have in my life. But when we're committed to something, it becomes so much easier. To say no. And this is where planning with your full deck of cards comes in. So before adding more goals, we need to do a little audit and ask these few questions. So we have four questions, and this is not about judgment, it's purely about honesty. So number one. Are my current habits supporting this goal or are they quietly working against it? And I, I think sometimes you, you know, things they can seem really innocuous and that they are really not hurting. But it's like those little things that just don't help move that needle forward. So are there any habits that are really getting in the way of you achieving the goal that you are after? Number two, what's already pulling on my time, my energy, my money, and my focus? Because those four elements are completely different. So when you do the audit, go ahead and really make four different column of what's pulling on your time, your energy, your money, and your focus. Number three, what am I. Avoiding changing because it's uncomfortable or. Because it's comfortable and I think it's funny because our brain exists to keep us safe. So all of a sudden when we are comfortable and all of a sudden we are in that place where we are living in discomfort, we're living in that place where. We are not in our like zone of genius, but we know we have to trudge through the mud to get to the other side. That can be where we meet all of that resistance and all of a sudden all of those excuses, all of those things that, oh, that takes my time. I've gotta go do that. You will find how all of a sudden your brain is going to sell you every excuse why you have to abandon leave and go back to like greener pastures. So what am I avoiding? Changing because it's comfortable. Alright. And number four, what would I have to shift not to be added? So I think often in the New Years we think, oh, I'm gonna add this, I'm gonna add that. And often it is, what do we need to shed to be able to shift our perspective? So. It's one of those, these four questions are very honest and they are going to expose. You in the most deepest, most honest ways, but you are going to find that they are going to find you the time that you need. They are going to find you the energy, they are gonna find you the money.'cause there is always the places that we can find that. It might a latte, it might be a subscription service. And then our focus, our focus is something that is one of the most, I think, um. One of our resources that is most often that we don't even realize we are trading for it. So it could be social media for me. I only get to go on social media at lunch if I am on a break on my own. Otherwise, it is purely there for work for me to be able to serve the community. So take a look at those questions and. Really schedule some space to audit and find that honesty. Alright, so we have done our audit. We know our goal, and now we have found this space and we are ready to make decisions. And we have two approaches and one is incremental. But it's intentional. So this is the approach that if you have a lot of different things in life that are vying for your attention that you want to retain, so you're not going to be saying no to a lot of the things that you've already committed to, then this is the approach that you are going to want to take. But if you are saying, I am in a season of all in. And I have the resources. Then from there, you are going to shift and you are going to stack the cards in your favor. So two completely different approaches, and there are different times in your life that you're going to use these and you might start with one and then go, I really see the finish line and for the next month, two months, whatever that is, I am gonna double down. So approach number one is incremental, but intentional. So we are building towards something while we're working. We're training, we're managing life's realities, and this approach is going to require more of small pockets of focused effort. But it's going to really require ruthless prioritization. And it's also gonna ask you to get very, very honest on realistic timelines. So this is where, you know, kind of what I think they say, the road meets the rubber. You are going to, um, have to really go, I honestly understand that this is gonna take longer than maybe even a peer. That you train along with, and that can feel really uncomfortable because I think when opportunities come through, we then feel like we're two steps behind. But remember, we are making this choice intentionally, and this is where you have to remind yourself that this is where you have built in peace because you made this. The prior prioritization, and you have made this timeline so your extraordinary progress doesn't require extraordinary time. It requires extraordinary intention. So I'm gonna say that again. Extraordinary progress doesn't require extraordinary time. It requires extraordinary intention. So think about that for the. Approach where you are gonna maintain a good portion of your life, but you're just going to be very intentional. So this next one is a little bit different. This is where you are going to simplify life. You are going to reduce distractions. You are gonna say no more often, you are gonna temporarily rebalance work, finances, and your comfort. And I've lived through this one and I'm honestly kind of living through a little bit of, of this right now. Um, not to scale that I wish I could, but, um. To the way where it's uncomfortable, it's powerful, but it's not always sustainable forever. And I remember when I made the switch from being a dancer to an acrobat, I moved to Canada and I trained at the Toronto School of Circus Arts, and I rented an apartment and I went up with an air mattress. I rented a tv, went to Walmart, bought like. Two plates, two cups, two forks, and my air mattress somewhere through the training when I was living there, started getting a hole in it. So I would wake up in the middle of the night and it would be deflated, and I basically lived my life between being in a bathtub training bathtub. Then sleeping and blowing up my mattress and otherwise that was kind of the way that life went. So I was in that all in season and, um, if I wasn't training, I was watching whatever I could get my hands on to understand what circus was and how I could position myself to be able to. Not feel like I was sacrificing that I was really all in on where I was going. So the key in this is choosing very conscientiously and not drifting into it accidentally. So you've gotta go through that audit and you have to be ruthless. Okay, so now that we've discussed the two different ways of really filtering our life with playing with the deck of cards, so we are either gonna stack those deck in our favor or we are going to play with the cards that we have, but we are going to be very intentional about that. So just I want to revisit. On a few items for you to really look at before taking some time and making this the year where you feel like you finally have control of your future and your present reality. So let's look at time reality. Not how much time you wish you had, how much you actually have. So whether, which plan you decide to go with, look at what you actually have and plan with the time that is in reality, your energy management. When are you most focused? When are you most depleted? And can you train? In those times that you're most focused and in those areas of pockets of time that you feel depleted, how can you move the needle forward? Because everything that we do is not necessarily always physical. There's some mental time where maybe when our body is tired, we are gonna be the most mentally sharp because we still crave the movement and, and to be able to move forward and to be able to achieve things. But we need to let. Our body rest. So what can you do if you are feeling like you still want to move the needle forward, and when is the most optimal time to be able to schedule those tasks? So your financial stability, what level of financial pressure will this goal create or relief? Because sometimes some goals that we are going for, they're ultimately going to be the ones that are going to relieve the pressure. So maybe there's a little bit of uptick in our, let's say, our financial spending to start with. But on the other side of that big scary. Goal is actually that financial freedom we've been looking for, and I want you guys to take a look into your skill gaps. What skill, not just your training is missing? Is it submission strategy? Is it the way that you communicate? Is it some miscellaneous items that you finally just need to get that headshot or do you need to go all in, really choreograph a targeted act to be able to submit for a company that you really know that is just, you've been dying to work for? Your support systems. Guys, this is huge. This is your mentors, this is your coaches, your community, and just the people that have your ear and you hear their voice in your head. We want these people to be what it is, a support system. You want to be equally on their team as they are of yours. And it, it's funny, sometimes I think we have the people in our life that we, maybe we can't. Say that they're no longer in our life, but we can fill our plate with others that are in support, that are really on board with your goal, and they are asking you and championing you. And these are the people that you want to make sure that they are your life. And team up with them because I think the biggest thing is when we are working on our goals, it can be very self-centric, but if you can find someone that you are also asking how they are and, and you guys are checking in on each other, then again we have more of that accountability. And with accountability, I really think anything is possible. So I want you to keep in mind you don't need more tools. You need honest alignment between what you want. How you are currently living, and this year isn't about stacking more goals, it's about playing the cards you actually have on purpose. So I hope this episode helps you now and for later so you can return back to these questions. Because alignment in life means more happiness and more course correcting, which leads you to keeping on track to living a more purposeful and fulfilled life.

Speaker 4 20:34

Thank you so much for listening today. I'd love to hear what you're navigating right now and what topics you want me to cover because this podcast is all about serving you and helping our community thrive. You can find me on Instagram at the Artist Behind the Art, also big announcement. I've been working on some artist mentorships and I'm gonna be kicking it off with a free three day mentorship that's all about strengthening your submission materials. And I can't wait to get to know more about you. Be sure to follow and like RTE Act development on Instagram. That is A-R-E-T-E ACT development. I want to be able to get all of the details to you as soon as they're available. Alright, guys, remember you already have what it takes. The question is, are you going to prove it to yourself? Until next time, show up big and own the stage.