“Passion is energy. Feel the power that comes from focusing on what excites you.”
— Oprah Winfrey
This month’s Motivational Message will be a powerful message. You see, I am the very proud mother of John Robert (JR), and I believe he is a perfect example of someone who is living out his passion. He is an actor, dancer and singer, so he has the “trifecta”— being equally talented in each of those 3 areas. He has been acting and dancing for the last 12 years and taking private singing lessons for the last 5 years. He was just a 4-year-old boy when we put him into acting and dancing classes. It was right after he had his first successful open-heart surgery.
Fast forward to this summer, when he’s really putting his theatrical talents to the test. He is doing 5 different musicals— and at this point has already successfully completed 4 of them. JR does not disappoint. People ask me to let them know about his performances in advance, and I am happy to coordinate people and tickets.
Every performance is better than the prior one. I don’t know how he does it. He is simply amazing. He’s currently working with 3 different theater groups and, some of these musicals overlapped. His days are really crazy. He just finished doing “Mean Girls” and the practice was from 9 am-4 pm each day, and then he came home and ate, after which he needed to be at another theater from 5:30-9:30 pm for “Footloose”. Each night after the evening performance he came home and ate another dinner and then went to bed. It was quite a hectic schedule, but he got through it and both performances were successes.
His main musical this summer was “Footloose”. He was able to really shine in the main male role of Rem McCormack- (aka Kevin Bacon). JR owned the stage, and he had the audience dancing in their seats. JR is so fortunate that he was able to discover his passion at a young age. He will be a junior in high school this year, and we have just started looking at colleges for him. He wants to major in musical theater and then possibly double-major or minor in education, communication, or digital marketing.
He is an “A” student, and since he started Landmark High School he’s been on the honor roll each semester. He has been able to maintain his grades during the year when he was doing musicals both at Landmark and also NESPA (New England School of Performing Arts). He even performed in his first play at school, as the leading male role of Wadsworth in “Clue”. His monologs were outstanding.
And even with all of this on his plate, he’s not single focused. He still enjoys other pleasures in life, and has friends, relatives, classmates, teachers, and neighbors as some of his groupies. John Robert is very talented. He doesn’t think twice about going on stage. He has confidence, poise, and stage presence.
You know, we all have our own values that we live by. For example, my 5 top values are Integrity, Family, Passion, Balance and Success. So, as you can easily see, I really do value Passion- I am sure that Passion is one of JR’s top 5 values; in fact it might be his #1 value. His passion is performing. For those of you who have come to his shows, you can all say that “you knew him when.” After college, he wants to go to New York and perform. I know that it is super competitive there, but he has GRIT, and whenever he puts his mind to something, he follows it through.
Do you have a passion? Do you want to discuss it during a 15-minute mini consult? It is very important to know your values. This is one of my favorite lessons to do with my clients. If you want to realize your values, I can help you. Click here to go to my calendar link https://bookme.name/LisaSasso.
I invite you to live your passion. Life is way too short not to.
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