Monday, May 11, 2015

The Soundtrack of My Life, The Little Train That Could

Last Friday featured an Aha Moment! replete with the taste of victory. The party isn't over this week.



I went into high school with very specific intentions. (Please note that I think Life works better when we direct our energy with Intention.)

1) Maintain a 4.0 GPA
2) Sing with Girls Glee in 10th grade, Girls Glee and Concert Choir 11th grade, and Concert Choir and Swing Choir (a select group requiring audition and the pinnacle of the singing possibilities at my high school) 12th grade. (To do this I NEVER had a lunch period for the last three years of my high school "career.")
3) Take Drama class, Audition for and Be in Plays (2 a year), and in 12th grade be in the Select Ensemble (another audition group)

How did all of that living with intention work out?

I graduated with a 4.0 GPA.

I surprised myself by getting a lead role in the play Up The Down Staircase my junior year. Two leads my senior year.

I was a part of the Select Ensemble my senior year and the Swing Choir.

That hottie in the yellow boots is me (Mammy Yokum). I has spoken!

The aspects of my life that I focused on with intention ALL happened. I also became friends with many people I went to junior high school with (the richies) because they shared similar goals. Instead of being divided over economic difference, we were united in achieving goals. So, I got along with the smart kids, the drama kids, and the choir kids. Quite frankly, I didn't know how good I had it (or that living with Intention is the key to making your dreams come true). It's somewhat sad that I peaked in "smarts" after the 12th grade... Just sayin'.

Since I loved the show Fame and this song sums up my feelings about this time period, it's only fitting. I can do anything better than you can! Just stand aside and watch me fly!




Have you ever noticed that when you live with Intention you are the driver of your car, the captain of your ship, the shaper of your destiny? When you live with Intention, anything is possible!


If you're enjoying these posts, feel free to share your own Soundtrack. This isn't a hop. No requirements at all, but a suggestion to do it one song at a time. (If you participated in the hop several years ago, you can still do this. Just post them one song at a time, with the freedom to add more songs if you'd like.) I'll link to all participants at the bottom of each of these posts:

StMcC Presents BATTLE OF THE BANDS

36 comments:

  1. Hi, dear Robin! Absolutely! I agree that we diminish and all but eliminate our chances of achieving a desired outcome if we sit around dreaming, wishing and hoping that someday, one day, we will "find" success, happiness or love. The language is far too vague and, with no plan of action, we stay stuck. Those things won't come to you and fall into your lap. You need to do the work - "massive action now" or MAN power, as it has been called. Your accomplishments, Robin, demonstrate the value of getting very specific, identifying and setting specific goals along creating with a viable plan, a step by step strategy that will allow you to achieve them. You got it right, dear friend "When you live with Intention, anything is possible!"

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    1. Your comment caused me to think about my Plan of Action for becoming migraine-free. Honestly, I didn't have an action plan for a long time. Well, I kinda did. In the beginning, there was Power Through It (meaning take pain meds like candy). When that ceased to become viable, I've changed the plan several times until I had to quit working altogether. But, my plan for getting better was hazy. Being really sick and constantly migrained will do that to you. For a long time it was all about finding a doctor who could solve this mystery. I guess that was the answer, because in 2012 I moved to Florida and found that doctor. She referred me to another doctor and things have been improving. Still not migraine free, though.

      I'm trying to do the things I've been told to do, but maybe I need to focus a bit more on what I want to achieve outside of migraines... and see what happens.

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  2. And I'm just sitting here laughing at their workout outfits. And the old, stodgy white guy in the corner who's trying not to get down but just can't restrain himself.

    It's true, though. Intention is the fire under your ass that gets you moving and keeps you going. As my favorite workout instructor says, "Those who say they can and those who say they can't are both right."

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    1. I bought this show on DVD a couple of years ago and watched it again, so I can tell you what's happening there. That stodgy white guy was the Superintendent of Schools (or some "hotshot") who wanted to make The School of the Arts conform to the public school system's "fitness plan" by incorporating Gym as a class. The kids there all take dance, so the argument was that they were in much better physical shape than anyone in public school. So, a contest of sorts was waged. Those half a dozen guys in traditional gym clothes were supposed to show the dancers what better shape they were in. It was all pretty funny. Anyone who doesn't know that dancing is hard and works every muscle in the body... well, they've not "danced."

      I love that saying by your workout instructor. So true!

      It's right up there with this one: "If a guy tells you he's a jerk, believe him."

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  3. OMG That is so wonderful to know where the path is leading. Within the past 2 weeks, as I've been working in the yard and my thoughts are free to wander, I've been thinking about that very thing and how wasted are the lives of young people when they aren't motivated to achieve. ( Of course, I don't know how that works now, when everyone if given a trophy)

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    1. I know that when I didn't know what I was doing it felt like I was just spinning. And not in a good way.

      You and I both know the school system isn't doing anything to motivate young people to succeed. That doesn't actually fit in with the "plan." Much harder to control a bunch of young people on fire, no?

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  4. Living with intentions. I like that phrase. Well, if you don't have goals and a plan, nothing will happen, right?
    And way to overachieve! Good for you.

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    1. I didn't OVERACHIEVE Alex... hahaha. I worked for the things I wanted and got them.

      Yes, if you don't have a goal and a real clear idea of how to get there, it's not gonna happen. I think that's one of the greatest tragedies of life. So many people are talented (myself included), but when I went at something without any understanding how to succeed at it... well, the results were less than spectacular. Far less.

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  5. If you want something bad enough and go for it hard enough, you can achieve it. :)

    Those yellow boots are sweet! ;P

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    1. Finally someone comments on the picture! Yes, those yellow boots were awesome.

      I still have that corn cob pipe. I guess the drama department didn't want it back after I chewed the end of it mercilessly.

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  6. Living with intentions sounds like a great motto and way to live.

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    1. Yes. Too bad I was so smart in high school and then forgot everything I knew.

      Now, I've remembered but am struggling with getting from point A to point B. However, knowing that living with intention and constantly striving for it might be the ingredient I've been missing!

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  7. I like it, too. When I think about the times I've been really lost... there hasn't been much intention going on. Just floating around hoping for a miracle.

    This series is another tool for me to see things more clearly. I'm glad you're enjoying it, too. When things get darker, I hope that people don't run and hide. Instead, perhaps they will relate to a friend, family member, or even an aspect of themselves in a new way.

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  8. Setting goals and then striving for them is the secret to success. Glad high school was a good time for you.

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    1. So much better than junior high. Like night and day really.

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  9. Those boots were made for walking:) I like how you phrased that-living with intention-it is so true. We all need this or we languish

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    1. As someone who has spent a fair amount of time languishing... I can attest to the truth of that statement!

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  10. You tend to go in the direction you are looking.

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  11. I've never really been goal-driven. My son is, though, he realized early that he had to put in the work for the things he wants. Too bad his dad's such a goof-off...

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  12. Mammy Yokum: Dwight's mother?

    Dang, GIRL WONDER, you are really gettin' on down with your bad self when it comes to this Soundtrack Of Your Life series! One right after the next - BOOM!-BANG!-POW! "Holy Intention, Batman!"

    Never did I have more intention than when I was going to the Police Explorer Academy in 1974. My big word then was "determination", and hokey-smoke was I ever determined! I was in fantastic shape and my mind was razor sharp. Despite being one of the youngest in the Academy, I graduated as one of the highest in my class and I was, as far as I know, the first cadet to ever receive a 100% score on a weekly notebook. (I wound up with several 100%s including a 100% on my Final Notebook, which was the biggie!)

    I will say though that it was a lotta work and took a lot outta me. I was never that driven again.

    Although I hate his politics, I will say for Bruce Springsteen that when he was young he made the decision that music was going to be his career, and so he said early on that he would never accept any job that did not have SOMETHING to do with music. That's how you do it!

    Funny, I worked on 'Fame' numerous times... when I wasn't working on some other show.

    ~ D-FensDogG
    'Loyal American Underground'

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    1. I may change your name to Stephen McSmartAss. Yeah, Dwight's mother. Bwahahaha.

      Would you be surprised to know that I've gotten another Soundtrack post written and scheduled for Wednesday? And my BoTB/Soundtrack post is written and scheduled for Friday? I'm on FIRE.

      I think that we have our heart and mind set on something there is simply no stopping us. I wish that Police Explorer story had a better ending OR that you'd set your sights differently on something that would've ultimately been what you wanted, but if there's anything I've learned is that there is no turning back the clock. In fact, no amount of hoping, wishing, and dreaming will make it so.

      Yes, if you absolutely KNOW what you want to do, never allow yourself to be sidetracked. I liken it to driving down the freeway. Whenever we get off to see the sights because something looks good on Frontage Road, which we are in trouble. Pretty soon we're distracted by something here and there... and we never find our way back to that freeway. Or it can take a long time wandering. Either way, the goal-driven person simply doesn't allow those temptations on Frontage Road to be remotely acceptable. It's all in the mind!

      Figures. You worked on my Fav-O-Rite shows and didn't even LIKE them. My favorite character was Bruno (the piano guy) played by Lee Curreri. Please don't tell me he was a jerk.... I had the nerdiest crush on him back in the day.

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    2. GW, you ARE on fire!

      I have my next BOTB blog bit written and saved, so I'm ahead of the game, but not like you are.

      One problem for me is that I was always pulled in too many directions. I was interested in most of the arts, so there wasn't just that ONE I could channel all of my thoughts and energy into.

      Lee Curreri, oh, sheesh, THAT guy?! No, I wouldn't say he was a jerk, but he would have been more interested in me than he would have been in you.

      ...No, I'm yankin' yer chain. The truth? I don't even remember him. I don't remember ANYONE on that show. I worked on it maybe half a dozen times and it was just a job. I'd get there and hope I was only in one or two shots and would get released early so I could get a good jump on "Happy Hour". Ha!

      I worked on just about everything that was being filmed from 1977 through 1983, and I viewed all of it as just "my job". I was dreaming bigger'n that.

      ~ D-FensDogG

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  13. Living with intention feels freeing, empowering, and successful. Great reminders, Robin. I think we're lost sight of this, as we're so distracted by the social media and all the nuances of daily life.

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    1. I think we just tend to drift allowing life to happen to us. (We're still captaining our ship, but we're doing it from the captain's cabin rather than the helm, which doesn't work so well.)

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  14. What great and positive thoughts!

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  15. I need a new driver. My intentional driving isn't getting me where I need to go. Maybe I'm being impatient. We'll see. :)

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    1. I don't know about that, Rosie. The result doesn't tend to happen overnight.

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  16. In high school, I was totally hyperfocused on Concert Choir - it was not open to anyone and you had the potential to tour the East coast. What's not to like? I'd come early, stay late, and give up study hall to be the teacher's aide.

    After I got in, the main reason I wanted great grades was to stay in the touring choir!

    I pity some of the kids I see these days that don't have a fervor or passion for something. What is life without passion?

    In fact, I think I'll go obsess about something right now.

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    1. That sounds a lot like me in high school. If I'd gone to your high school being in your Concert Choir would've been on my list, too. I'd also have been willing to make time sacrifices to achieve the goal. When you want something badly enough, you work to make it happen. How do we know it and forget it? Know it and forget it? Or maybe we only know when we clearly see the way to getting it. When we want something but have no idea how to get there... that is when it all becomes problematic.

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  17. Hi Robin,

    Shared intentions and shared goals does indeed create an ideal of sensing you can accomplish with sincerity, things so close to your heart.

    I'm the driver of my car. Of course, remembering which side the steering wheel is on is one heck of a help.

    Nice one, Robin.

    Gary :)

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  18. You did well in high school! I was in high school on a regular basis, but with practically zero participation. Scholastically I did well, but no 4.0 like you had.

    In retrospect I kind of wish I had become more involved like you were, but then again I probably wouldn't have had the great life I've had. Might have been better, but I'll never know.

    Later in my life when I had intention I did move more toward my dreams, but it helped to know the right people too. Our destiny can have many influences that shape us and sometimes we can be the driver but someone else might be supplying the vehicle. I don't know that anybody achieves everything they want on their own initiative, but having the initiative can sure help a lot.

    Arlee Bird
    A to Z Challenge Co-host
    Tossing It Out

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  19. I'm impressed that you graduated with a 4.0, and starred in so many plays! Cute photo from Li'l Abner! I tried out for all of the plays, and finally made the chorus in Fiddler On The Roof at the end of my junior year. My claim to fame was playing the wicked Queen in Snow White when I was a senior. I laughed when some audience members thought I was actually from England. I wish that I had been half as driven as you were, and still are Robin.

    Julie

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  20. I have only learned recently that it is up to me to make things happen...living with intention, as you call it. It's a pretty darn important lesson.

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  21. I agree 100% in your motto " living with intention". I cant sing and never was interested in choir but my passion was drill team. I danced all 4 years and I made officer my senior year. Every spare minute of the day was absorbed and based on dance. I regret nothing! It also filled up a small part of the empty space I had with not having a boyfriend that leads to your last post (simon and Garfunkel song).

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