Watching Others Get Booked While You Wait

The Comparison That Quietly Drains You

You scroll past the announcement.
A festival. A Cirque contract. A residency you applied for.
And it's someone you know.

For a second, maybe longer, something tightens. Not because you're not happy for them. You probably are. But because their booking makes the silence on your end feel louder.

This is one of the most common and least talked-about experiences in circus. And it does real damage when you let it sit unchallenged.

Here's what's actually true: their booking has no bearing on yours. The circus world is not a fixed pool of opportunities where someone else winning means you lose. Shows keep being created. Contracts keep being offered. The performer who got that role didn't take it from you.

What comparison does is pull your attention away from your own trajectory and point it at someone else's. Every minute spent measuring yourself against their timeline is a minute not spent improving yours.

Stay in your lane. The people doing the most interesting work are usually too focused to look sideways.

💡 Your challenge this week:
Next time you feel that tightening, notice it, name it, and redirect. Write down one thing you can do this week that moves your own career forward. Then do that instead.

P.S. I've felt it too. Someone announces a booking and for a moment the training that morning feels pointless. The trick I've learned is to use it as fuel. Not for envy, but as a reminder that the work is real and the opportunities are out there.