The Super Secret Project...FINALLY

Have you ever had a dream come true?

I live near Disney World and there's a lot of talk about dreams and following your dreams around here. Which I love, but no one talks about how HARD that can be. Walt Disney had everything on the line -- his home, his life -- when Snow White hit the big screens and took off. He'd had properties/characters taken by previous studios, risked and failed, risked and failed again... His family must have thought him insane. He borrowed money, leveraged himself AND his brother out to make this show happen. That's how hard he believed.

And we can all see the result of his dream...but we miss the true miracle: that he didn't quit.

I keep that story in my pocket. We've had a secret project (that I've occasionally talked about here, because, you know, you're my buddies) and with several false starts, things have suddenly changed.

What changed?

Us.

My project started as a literal dream. I woke, ran to my piano (keyboard), and picked out the song I'd been listening to in my sleep -- a musical about a vampire, where the vampire was the good guy. (This was pre-Twilight, so...) I played and sang the song for my husband and his jaw hit the floor. When he returned from work several hours later and I had TWO MORE songs, he suggested we should take a week and just see what happened. By the end of that week, we had 10 songs and most of the storyline.

That was the FUN part. The creative process usually is.

Fast forward 22 years, three separate starts, NYC, finding a producer, losing a producer, two previous creative teams, three previous readings... And finally the show made it to the stage.

This last month, we hosted a benefit reading to rave reviews. I'm glad the audience got to enjoy it. I sat in the front, madly conducting the entire show while my poor husband sat in the tech booth, head down to make sure we didn't miss any lighting or sound cues. WHAT A RUSH.

No one was privy to the mountain of work behind the scenes: two years of planning, workshopping, casting, reworking, recasting, transcribing sheet music to a new scoring program, the creation of 200 learning videos, financial planning, team recruiting, mixing music (2 hours worth of audio), rehearsing, adjusting, designing...

THEY only saw the final product. The real miracle is what happened before.

And so let me unveil for you the project that has consumed half my life -- my second baby.

Check it out. Follow on Facebook. Join our insanity. GIVE US MONEY. 😂 (But seriously.) And if you'd like to be kept in the loop on our exploits, join the newsletter list (at the end of this post.)

Phase one is finally complete. In the next couple weeks we'll have the audio and video back to form a new highlight reel with these incredible performers. Now we lay the groundwork for phase two: the world premier with a live orchestra. With any luck, this show will hit the stage in 1.5-2.5 years, with a social media campaign to launch it toward Broadway (2030?).

There you have it. It's happening. Why? Because we are willing to work ourselves into the ground to make it happen. Any truly amazing dream is worth the blood, sweat, and tears. You have to believe your dreams into reality because otherwise they remain only that -- dreams. 

What secret projects are you chipping away at? What dreams are you pursuing? Who do you look up to as a dream-accomplishing hero/inspiration?

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The Art of the Distance Run

How many of you are runners?

When I was young, I was the fastest girl in my school. (I had older brothers -- it was a survival skill.) Of approximately 3,000 students in my middle school, that status stuck, so I decided to go out for track...and lasted about a semester, when I mentioned to my dad (a doctor) that I was shaky and coughing and miserable for 3 days after running a mile. Turns out I had exercise-induced asthma. That ended my running career and I turned to biking.

Fast forward 30 years. My son, whom I had always assumed also suffered from exercise-induced asthma, decided he was going to run a 5K. He trained everyday for a semester, and when he called me and told me proudly he had run for 10 miles straight without even realizing it, I took that as permission to try again. If he could do it, why couldn't I?

My first running session was torture. I think I made it an eighth of a mile. If that. But I didn't give up. I took the kids to the park every other day, and I built on what I was capable of, pushing myself until I wanted to puke. Until my lungs ached. Until I was sure I was killing myself. 

2 years of this, and I came to this magical place where I had built up to running 2 miles. As a teenager, I had never run 1 mile straight, and I was stinkin' fit!

So what got me there?

1. It started with seeing another person go the distance, realizing it was possible. 

2. Making a plan--I had to have a pathway to success. I had to be consistent. I had to push through even when it felt like torture.

3. I had to make realistic goals. Small ones at first, building, pushing myself harder and harder. 

4. I had to keep my eye on the Target: the hope of being healthier and having more endurance daily to handle the demand of multiple kids, homeschooling, directing plays and musicals, and so, so much more.

This is one success story in a plethora of failures. There were many times when I had to quit running due to injury, only to pick up a month or two later and build to where I had been. My joints didn't like the exertion. Oftentimes, I'd limp for my run. My lungs hated me. They screamed they couldn't pump through another step.

But ultimately, it was possible.

I listened to a talk once about a man who sat down with a billionaire and asked what his secret was. What could he do to reach the level of this expert? The man told him the story of The tortoise and the hare. He said, “Be the tortoise.”

In another inspirational talk given by multi-marathon runners, I heard some of the best advice ever: “Never question the race on the uphill.” – Meaning don't consider quitting when you're on the hardest part of the course. Wait until you are gliding down the hill before deciding whether or not it's worth quitting. 

These are the keys to success. I've realized them in three of my kids who've reached adulthood, two more on the way. I see them in the talents and skills I've gained through the years. I see it through our slow accumulation of successes in every aspect of life. 

We get too anxious to sprint. We get excited by small successes and think think we've done it. The reality is:

Life is a distance run.

If we can learn the art of the distance run, we'll finish our race with success, joy, and the sense of accomplishment that only those who crush hardship can know.

What challenge are you huffing & panting through right now? What crazy obstacles have you overcome? What advise do you have to reaching success?